


HIRAETH (zuko x reader)

by orphan_account



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: A:TLA - Freeform, AtLA, Avatar the Last Airbender, F/M, XReader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25327696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: HIREATH: a welsh word for homesickness or nostalgia, an earnest longing or desire, or a sense of regret
Relationships: Zuko (Avatar) & Reader, Zuko (Avatar)/Reader, Zuko/Reader, zuko/reader insert
Comments: 16
Kudos: 46





	1. CH.1

**Author's Note:**

> :)

Zuko couldn’t remember a thing. All he knows is that it’s dark and cold,  _ extremely _ cold. Every time he’d draw in a breath he felt like his lungs were being pierced by icicles. The place reminded him of the ‘Cooler’ from the Boiling Rock prison.

He’d wondered how long he’d been here for. Zuko remembered falling in and out of consciousness ever since he’d gotten here so he didn’t really trust the timeline he was trying to construct in his head. This is what he had so far: 

  1. Being with Sokka in an odd water tribe village, it was the middle of the day and the sun was out but Zuko remembered still feeling no warmth. That’s the thing he hated about most water tribes.
  2. Sokka had turned around to look at what some merchant was selling. 
  3. Sokka started to bargain with the merchant.
  4. Then things started to get foggy and Sokka had brought him to another booth.
  5. Two more booths and everything seemed to get fuzzy.



That’s 5 things. 

Great. 

Zuko was growing tired of being chained up, his wrists were growing numb. The pole he was tied to was digging into his back. He tried melting them with bending since he thought they might’ve been ice but that didn’t work. Wow the prince of the Fire Nation can’t melt ice, shocking.

Zuko groaned for what felt like the fiftieth time and finally came to the conclusion that bending was not helping. 

He decided to do something that could actually help him, look around. From what he could gather the walls were caving in around him. He guessed he was tied up in the middle of the room because he couldn’t see the back of it. There were no windows and it felt stuffy. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark and he began to notice even more things. Piles of papers were strewn on the floor, maps, notes, some were pages ripped out from history books. Used candles were all over the floor and puddles of ink could be found each time Zuko found crumpled up paper and a broken writing brush. Some things were hung onto the walls with ice picks, it took him a while to make them out but when he finally did his heart sank. 

Wanted posters. 

There were wanted posters of Aang, Toph, Sokka, Katara, Appa, there was even one of his uncles except it was ripped like the other half was missing or something. And lots of others, though he either couldn’t make them out or didn’t recognize the faces. Zuko looked to the other side of the room and started to feel more dread setting in. 

He found the other half of his uncle’s wanted poster. It was his picture, an old one but still his(oh spirits,,, who let him walk around with that haircut). A big circle of ink surrounded it along with a bunch of arrows pointed at his face. If things couldn’t get any shittier another huge arrow pointed towards another picture of him. Well not necessarily of him but the Blue Spirit. In big messy lettering, it read, “ _ THE SAME”.  _

If it wasn’t so obvious Zuko would have guessed that he probably pissed this person off to a great extent. He got to thinking, who’s he angered lately? He sighed, he hated how long the list was. 

He tried turning around to the best of abilities to get a look at the rest of the place. A table sat in the corner of the room. It was the same thing, notes, books, and bottles of ink. It was weird this time though, everything was neatly stacked and put in the right place. It was completely different from what was in front of him. He wondered what was written on the papers, it must have been different than the rest because the handwriting looked much neater. It was such a contrast that Zuko was starting to wonder if more than one person had captured him. If that was true, his luck just got worse. 

Did he break a mirror or something? Honestly, what had he done to deserve this? Sure Zuko had hunted the avatar for a while but did something like that deserve this much punishment?

Zuko was sure it’d been hours already, he soon started to realize how weak he was and the cold wasn’t helping. He wouldn’t be able to get out of here even if he tried. He could only hope that when he woke up he’d feel a little bit stronger. Come to think of it, Zuko hadn’t really slept well in a while. Trying to sleep on a flying bison’s back while 1,000 feet above the ground is scarier than it sounds.

And with that Zuko fell asleep.

|

|

Y/N didn’t know if it was because she’d lived in the cold for so long but today felt warmer than usual. The marketplace was extremely crowded today, more than usual. She kept looking at the wall of wanted posters and huffed, maybe today would be different.

She never realized how hard catching criminals would be, though like any normal functioning person it wasn’t something she’d thought about frequently before all of this. None of the people on the wall seemed to have a high enough bidding. Once she’d visited General Lee she was sure she had found someone of value, he had a huge bounty over his head and no one had come even close to capturing him. He hadn’t even given her the time of day. The next she’d brought a Fire Nation traitor, accused of aiding the Avatar. Y/N was sure she’d succeeded this time. But, again, nothing. She’d promised herself that she’d never give up on her people but things were getting hopeless. 

Then, something changed. She never knew she’d be so happy to have run into a swamp village and had fainted at the sight of an elbow leech. She’d found who she was going to hunt down . . . Prince Zuko. He was _perfect._ Oldest son of the Firelord, held a high status, and she’d overheard soldiers speak about how he was a traitor and let everyone down (she then found a wanted poster to prove it). There were basically no cons to him, he was flawless. 

On the plus side she was sure the General would get his rocks off at even the thought of delivering someone so important. He’d probably get some honor badge too. 

Too bad she let him slip through her fingers the first time. That was one of Y/N biggest regrets. 

Y/N’s face grew dull. It didn’t matter, she hadn’t made any progress and wasn’t any closer to capturing him. 

Capturing a Prince is much easier said than done. 

It didn’t make any sense to her, it’s like he'd fallen off the face of the Earth. Usually she’d been hearing about him left and right, from stray Fire Nation soldiers in villages, stories about how once again he’d nearly captured and killed the avatar, but then things just went silent. Y/N hadn’t heard anything from anyone in weeks. Sometimes she’d ask people and their faces would just pull a blank like they’d never heard of him in the first place, other times they’d just straight up get defensive, telling her it wasn’t her place to be asking such things. She didn’t try to think about it too much. A lack of information wasn’t going to bring her down now, she was running out of time. 

Hopefully, the general hadn’t flaked out on her yet, it had been a while since she’d brought someone to him.

Now that she thought about it maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to trust a fire nation general to keep his word. Maybe she should just try and jump him and--OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!!!

Was Y/N dreaming? She had to be. Things couldn’t be this easy, they just couldn’t be. 

There stood Prince Zuko, almost awkwardly might Y/N add, next to a booth with a merchant selling handmade bags. He was just  _ standing  _ there without a care in the world. It almost made her mad how nonchalant he was being. Y/N really doesn’t want to complain but she thought this would just be a little bit more dramatic.

She moved from the alleyway and moved closer to them, luckily enough the booth next to theirs sold mirrors. 

“Hey Y/N,” Yao spoke. 

“Yeah, uh hey.” Y/N half smiled, not really paying attention.

Yao was the daughter of the merchant who sold the mirrors at the booth, he’d been sick lately so Y/N had been seeing more of her. She didn’t like the circumstances but she did have to admit it was nice seeing a face her age.

“D’you hear about the avatar being here? Guess the rumour about him being dead was bull.” 

“Yeah, yeah I heard. Probably why there are so many people out today,” Y/N said.

“Yuppp, not one person wants to buy mirrors though.” Yao crosses her arms and frowns. 

Y/N laughs, she knew how much she didn’t like the job but she couldn’t not do it, her father needed her to. That’s one of the things she liked about her, Yao wasn’t very selfish. 

She felt guilty about only half listening to her about her day but she had to keep an eye on the Prince and whoever he was with. She kept glancing at them through the mirrors in a way she  _ thought _ wasn’t too suspicious, but she was obviously proven wrong when Yao spoke up about it.

“He’s cute isn’t he?” Yao smirked, she was whispering now so they wouldn’t overhear.

“Wha-”

“The one with the scar,” She said.

Y/N half nodded, “I guess so.”

“He’s with the avatar too apparently. It’s weird though, he looks so familiar.” Y/N didn’t say anything to that. It’s not like she could tell her she was Fire Lord Ozai’s son.

She was so nervous, he was standing right there, right next to her, barely even five feet away. Though surprisingly Yao didn’t take her nervous silence as the ‘omg I have to kidnap a guy right next to me’ type of silence.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. I’m more into the guy with the ponytail anyway,” She said. 

Y/N laughs and rolls her eyes.

They both talked for a few more seconds until Y/N noticed the two leaving the booth. She waved goodbye to Yao and continued following them.

She started to realize the guy with the ponytail really liked to shop. She swore she nearly laughed every time the guy would drag the Prince around to another booth, he looked so out of place. 

Before she could make fun of him some more Y/N had found her opening. 

Zuko had asked the ponytail boy for a sip of water from his canteen. This was it. Y/N waterbended some of her medicine and went out to walk in front of the booth they were at. She purposely bumped into him rather harshly and slipped a little bit of the medicine into the flask while he was distracted.

“Sorry,” Y/N mumbled.

“It’s--” But she had already gone. 

Now all she had to do was wait a little bit longer. 

|

|

Y/N couldn’t believe things turned out to be this easy. Things went so smoothly it was almost scary. 

She’d sedated him successfully, snatched him up from under his friends nose, managed to get out of a crowded village with an unconscious boy hanging on her shoulder and get home in just a couple of hours. Now all she had to do was write to General Lee telling him she’d found someone and give him Prince Zuko. 

Yeah, this’ll work.

Y/N put down her writing brush and dragged her hands down her face. If she kept thinking about how well things were going she was sure to jinx herself. 

She stepped away from her desk and paced around the room. He had woken up in a while, maybe the dosage she’d given him was too much. 

She stopped her pacing and stood in front of him. She pushed away some loose notes and made herself a small spot on the floor to sit on. 

His scar was what kept her from looking away from him. You really couldn’t miss it, it was pinkish till around the center, where the hue changed to a deeper red. It looked a little bit rough looking too, like if she were to drag her fingers along it would feel bumpy and coarse. 

Whatever caused so much damage must have hurt badly. It didn’t look ugly on him though, surprisingly. It wasn’t repulsing in any way at all, it shocked her how much she kept looking at it. Y/N thought it was a little bit mesmerizing even. 

Suddenly, Zuko had stirred. 

Y/N had felt a rush of adrenaline, and a sense of hope.

The prince met her eyes and gasped. The chains clattered when his back hit the pole.

“Finally,” she said. 

“Uh, hello?” He took a deep breath and scowled when Y/N took a step closer. 

“Who are you--” He tried to ask.

“I really don’t think that’s important,” Y/N answered. 

Zuko fell silent for a second and kept his eyes on her. He was clearly confused; it was written all over his face, it was almost laughable. Y/N watched him while he furrowed his brows and let his frown grow bigger, she wondered if he was going to try and use his firebending and fight her. Honestly, she was a bit scared. She’d never seen him fight before and she didn’t doubt that the Prince of the Fire Nation wouldn’t be skilled. 

“What do you want from me?” He demanded. 

“Well there's a lot to it, but I guess I could cut the story short so we don’t waste any more time.” 

Y/N waterbended the ice holding Zuko up and turned them back into water. 

“You’re my ticket to revenge.”


	2. CH.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idiot fights eel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope u like it

“What do you mean Zuko’s gone!?” Katara yelled. 

Sokka had this dumb look on his face, it was like half concern and half panic. He honestly didn’t know what he was saying either. One second Zuko was right by his side and the next he was just gone. Like he’d disappeared into thin air. Everyone at the marketplace looked so normal, he must have let his guard down subconsciously. Then again, Zuko would have never gone down without a fight so how come he hadn’t noticed anything until he was long gone? Sokka thought about the fact that it was a little loud, he’d find himself yelling over people to get his attention from time to time, maybe Zuko had called for help but Sokka just didn’t hear. It was his only guess so far. Someone in that village must have taken him. Sokka tried to recall anyone that might have been following them.

“Katara, I don’t know! He was right by me the entire time,” He replied. 

“Did you see anyone that looked weird? Maybe someone from the Fire Nation took him,” Aang suggested. 

No, it couldn’t have been that either because if it was a Fire Nation soldier they would have stood out.

“He couldn’t have just disappeared, Sokka. Try to think of anyone that might have stood out,” Suki said.

There were so many people in that marketplace that all the faces seemed blurred. He did remember all the merchants he’d tried to haggle with but none struck him as the kidnapping type. For such a small village there were a lot of people out that day, he wondered why. Most were older, like the elderly, he doubted anyone walking around with a cain would be able to pull something like this. Maybe there was a face he kept seeing but never realized it. 

That’s when it hit him.

“Oh wait!” He exclaimed. 

Sokka remembered two girls that were at a booth next to the one he and Zuko were at, they sold mirrors or something. He remembered them whispering a lot and one of them kept looking over at the two. He’d overheard the word ‘cute’ and teased Zuko about him finally being able to get some action. He didn’t realize it until now, but he kept seeing the girl that wasn’t managing the booth later on. At other booths, talking to merchants near the ones they were talking to, or just close behind. Either way they were always near them. 

“There were these two girls and one of them might have been following us,” Sokka said.

The group looked at him dumbfounded, well everyone except for Toph, cause you know. 

“That’s it?” Suki asked. She crossed her arms and raised a brow.

“Hey, it’s something!”

Katara sighed, “We need to get him back. I mean, Aang still needs to master firebending--”

“And!” Aang interrupted her. “Zuko is our friend. If one of us got taken he wouldn’t leave us behind.”

Suki and Toph both agreed. So did Katara, though more reluctantly. Sokka had a feeling she’d forgiven him but that he still got on her nerves.

“Alright, then we need to head back to that marketplace. It’s the only lead we’ve got so far.” Sokka climbed on top of Appa and everyone else followed. 

He’d felt like he’d failed again somehow. He knew Zuko could handle himself as well as anybody else, but he felt like he failed as a friend. Friend’s are supposed to be there for each other, not to mention Zuko didn’t even want to go shopping with him that day. Yet, Sokka decided to be selfish and drag him there anyway. Maybe if he hadn’t brought Zuko with him none of this would have happened. Sokka couldn’t stop thinking about how easily he’d let someone he cared about slip away,  _ again _ , there wasn’t even a fight or anything. There was nothing he could have done to prevent it from happening. He was there and the next second he wasn’t.

Sokka was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Suki’s hand rest on his shoulder. 

“We’ll find him,” She said.

“I know,”

Suki gave him a reassuring smile, and he felt better for a few seconds. Only a few though.

|

|

Yao had to be having the worst night of her life. Scratch that, the worst month. She had to deal with annoying old customers the entire day and the only break she got was when Y/N had come over to chat, which would be once in a blue moon. 

She swore people were getting dumber by the day. One man had continuously asked her if the mirrors her father made warded off evil spirits. When she’d told him she couldn’t answer that question he’d accused her of being one of them. Once an elderly woman dropped off crows in front of her shop and told her she’d trade them for the most expensive mirror Yao had. When she refused to accept crow currency, the woman squawked at Yao and then ran away. On the bright side, Yao now has 3 pet crows. 

She was just glad to be able to go back home and finally relax--

“Um excuse me?”

Oh for fuck’s sake. What was it this time?

“Yes, hi, hello. Would you like a mirror?” Yao turned towards the front of the booth while giving her usual greeting to customers. “Oh.” 

She was met with the boy she and Y/N were talking about earlier in the afternoon. His friend with the scar wasn’t with him though. This time he was with three others that she’d never seen before, and some weird looking animal. If they were going to try and sell that thing to her for a mirror Yao was going to lose her shit.

“Hi, my name’s Sokka and I wanted to ask about the friend that was with you earlier.” He spoke. “You know, like this tall, (e/c) eyes and (h/c) hair.”

Y/N? Why did they want to know about her?

“Why do you want to know about her?” She asked. 

As soon as she had a girl with blue eyes stepped forward. 

“We think the girl you were talking to might have our friend,” She said. 

Yao blinked. “By have do you mean . . . like  _ taken _ ?”

The girl’s face dropped as she nodded and the rest mirrored her.

Yao stood there wide-eyed. She couldn’t think of one reason why Y/N would even  _ think _ of doing something like that. The few times she’d come to visit her she’d been one of the nicest people Yao had ever met. Though the more she thought about it, she didn’t really know anything about Y/N to begin with. The things she did know weren’t that important. She knew Y/N was a traveler, which was why she’d only see her once in a while, she knew she traveled alone, that she had a pet polar bear named ‘Ro’ and that her birthday was during spring. Yao knew she was one of the only people Y/N actually talked to in the entire village, that she was around her age, and that she was considerate enough to bring Yao something from where she’d traveled last everytime she came back.

She didn’t know what Y/N was like beyond 10-minute talks.

“Well, she’s a traveler. But, she comes back here every couple of weeks cause she’s got a place south of here.” Yao took a deep breath and let her eyebrows crease. She couldn’t believe this. 

The girl smiled and thanked her, so did the rest of them.

“Hey, wait!” She waved them back before they could all leave. “I’m sure this is all some misunderstanding, ok? It’s just--I mean if she does have your friend . . .” Yao looked down and wrung her hands. 

“She’s a good person is what I mean,” She finally said. 

None of them said anything, which was understandable. She would find it hard to believe herself too if she was in their shoes. But she really did mean it, Y/N was a good person, Yao would even go as far as to say she was one of the best. Even if she didn’t know every little thing about her, it doesn’t take a genius to see the good in someone.

The group only left with another ‘thank you’ and a ‘goodbye’. When they were gone Yao didn’t felt like she couldn’t feel relieved to go home anymore, this was news she could have gone without hearing. 

She opened the door to her house and set all of her things down, though it still felt like weight was on her shoulders. 

Recently, the habit of checking up on her dad as soon as she was home was something Yao had wired into her brain. When she walked into his room, he greeted her with a smile and asked her about her day.

“How’s that friend of yours? What was her name again, Y/N?” Was the first thing he asked. When Yao was little she swore her father was a mind reader, he always seemed to know what was wrong or what people were thinking about. This just proved her point.

“She came back today.” She dipped a dry towel into a bucket of water and set it on his forehead. 

“She’s not in any trouble lately, right? I still remember how distressed she looked when I’d first met her,” He said. Once again, he somehow knew what was going on, maybe her 9 year old self was right. 

“No, she’s been doing fine,”

Yao could only hope what she had said was in fact true. 

|

|

Y/N convinced herself she was dying of a horrible, terrible, horrendous illness. She felt her life wilting away at the tip of her fingertips. Memories of her criminally boring and short life kept replaying in her head, she had so much she hadn’t achieved yet. Was this really the end for her? Was she seriously going to die in the middle of a random tundra on a sled? Y/N felt her head start to get fuzzy. This was it.

Y/N had finally succumbed to awkwardness. 

No words had been spoken ever since her and the Prince had gotten onto the sled Ro was dragging along the ice. Usually these sort of rides were pleasant for Y/N, there was something comforting about the cold air hitting her face and then being able to warm up at her usual checkpoint. Nostalgia decided to slap her in the face and remind her of all the times she’d take long rides like this with all her friends, there’d be laughing and banter. They’d try and come up with as many games you can come up with while in the middle of a tundra, like whoever could spot the first otter penguin got all the best food. On the way back home there would only be comfortable silence and a few people whispering, not wanting to wake anyone else up. It’d be dark and sometimes the stars seemed almost  _ too  _ pretty, like people weren’t really meant to see them. Her friends would try and make out constellations or just make up their own. 

A wave of sadness came right after nostalgia and decked her right in the face. She would never be able to go back to that. Everyone was gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. 

**THEY’RE GONE AND YOU DID NOTHING.**

Zuko’s knee bumped into her’s and she shot him a glare. 

“Sorry,” He said. 

“Whatever, just stay on your side will you?”

Those were the first words they’d spoken for hours and Y/N can’t decide if it was a blessing or a curse. Silence settled back in and Y/N can’t hear anything but the Prince’s breathing. 

“Stop,” She demanded. 

Zuko looked over at her confused, which she understood, he hadn’t done anything yet, something about him pissed her off. Before she’d planned on hunting him down and brought other people to General Lee, they wouldn't be riding next to her. Let alone in the same sled. There'd be a long rope behind her with an even smaller sled attached and that’s where they would ride. But, ever since Ro had gotten injured he couldn’t bear(HAHAHAHA POLAR BEAR)all the weight. Y/N blamed herself for that too.

“You. . . you breathe weird,” She said. Y/N didn’t think about how much of an embarrassing thing that is to get annoyed about. But she was too full of herself to admit at the moment. She’d somehow convinced herself that the painful ride was completely his fault. 

Zuko gave her a look that told her she was the dumbest person alive. She knew she deserved it but it still offended her.

“It’s to keep me warm,” He replied defensively, he was acting like she’d insulted his whole family. 

This was something that had piqued Y/N’s interest though. How was he keeping warm with only his breath? Was it a form of firebending? She’d never really heard of anything like that.

“Oh. . . how?” She asked sheepishly. She realized how contradictory her actions were. Before she’d continuously told him to shut up and not ask questions, maybe it was the boredom setting in. It might also be the fact that this guy was the same age as her allowing some sort of unwelcome comfort between the two. Y/N didn’t have many people her age that she could talk to anymore.

“What?” Zuko looked less surprised about her question and more surprised that she was trying to make conversation. 

“Like--like how do you do it?”

Zuko paused like he wasn’t sure if he should answer or not. He must have thought it was some sort of trap or something. 

“My uncle taught it to me, I’m not exactly sure how to explain it.” The mention of his uncle seemed to have made him uncomfortable so Y/N didn’t push any further. Which meant they’d both have to go back to silence. It seemed less awkward now that they’d exchanged a few words. The sled kept moving forward and Y/N found herself actually being able to relax for a few seconds, everything was going according to plan. 

The Prince surprisingly hadn’t pulled any escape attempts, so she even found herself letting her guard down around him at times. An example would before they’d left. The sun was a few hours from rising and she’d offered him tea, it wasn’t like she was a monster or anything, she only planned on keeping him downstairs for a few hours to scare him. He’d accepted and sat down at the table. While he drank Y/N leaned against a wall and tried to keep an eye on him. But, she’d been up for so long she found herself dozing off. 

It was only for a minute, maybe five but it didn’t matter. When she’d woken up she panicked. She’d really fucked up this time,  _ he wasn’t there _ . His tea cup was empty and set back onto the table. She’d run outside first, no sign of him. Y/N ran back inside and went down the staircase, she doubted he would head back here but there was no other place. She was right.

There he was, sitting at your desk and shifting through your notes and letters. Y/N was so  _ confused _ more than anything else. Why would he . . .

Not only that but he was weirdly compliant, besides the occasional stupid question and vocal frustration about being in chains he was more bearable than she’d expected. He hadn’t even tried to escape once. At first, Y/N had thought Zuko just wasn’t threatened by her. But if that had been true wouldn’t he had attacked her by now? She’d find him staring at her on multiple occasions, at first thinking that it was out of hate, but she never saw anything but annoyance or slight irritation. Which is just below normal for someone who's been kidnapped and taken somewhere against their will by a stranger. 

He looked like he was trying to figure her out and she didn’t like it. Y/N couldn’t deny she’d been doing the same thing to him though, trying to figure out why he was acting so strange for someone in his position. 

A lone otter penguin caught Y/N’s eye and dragged her out of her thoughts. It was gliding along the ice and approached the sled the two were riding on. 

“That’s weird,” She mumbled.

Zuko turned his head and looked at the animal then back at her. 

“What’s wrong? It’s just an otter penguin,” Zuko dismissed.

Y/N shook her head and turned back toward him. “They’re usually in packs, it’s odd to see one by itself--”

_ CRACK! _

The sled tipped over but she couldn’t register what was happening quickly enough to do anything about it. She manages to catch a glimpse of what caused it before landing flat on her back.

An ice eel. Well really it mostly resembled a huge leopard sea lion  _ mixed _ with eel, but that was what Yao’s father would call it. She’d always gotten so lucky with avoiding it, why now? Of all the other times she’d cross over this water why did it happen this time?

Y/N felt her breath being slammed out of her. Cold ice hit her back and her vision was engulfed in darkness when the sled landed on top of her. It had also landed on her arm, but she chose to ignore that detail for now, doing that obviously helped when she managed to push the thing off of her. 

Her first thought was whether or not the Prince was injured. She looked over to her right to see him face first on the ground struggling to get up. Okay good, at least the cargo was safe. Y/N didn’t have any more time to gather her thoughts when she felt the ice beneath her start to rumble again. She struggled to get up on her feet and ran over to Zuko, grabbing his arm and pulling him upward. 

“Come on, get up!” She exclaimed. 

He groaned and yanked his arm away from her hand, which is something she would’ve taken as an insult if she hadn’t noticed Ro dangerously close to being devoured. The polar bear was running towards the two with the eel close behind. 

Y/N left Zuko’s side with swiftness, ignoring his protest. Bringing her hand up to her waterskin, she bended water out and used it to slash at the eel's face. It hissed and slowed it’s pace making a big enough gap for Ro to get away. 

The monster doesn’t stay shocked for long, it dove into the ice and another crash could be heard. At first, she’d thought it had given up, surely having to chase for food for this long was too much. Y/N was too smart to believe that though. She could feel the eel circling around her under ice. She thrust her hands towards the floor and waited. 

“What are you doing!?” Zuko yelled.

“Not now!” She replied rather angrily. 

“Unchain me and I can help--”

Zuko didn’t get to finish his sentence when the rumbling of ice started again. 

There. 

The eel burst through the air again to Y/N’s right, a little closer to Ro and Zuko than she’d like but she’d have to make it work. 

Y/N pulled her hands up and propelled all the water she could into the air. She then threw her hands to its direction and the water followed. She turned it to ice when the large serpent was hit and watched while it got encased. It wasn’t enough. 

The eel thrashed it’s body around violently, shaking off the ice like it was just some winter coat. 

Suddenly the eel threw itself at her headfirst. They both collided and Y/N was thrown backwards into the water.

For some reason Y/N’s first reaction was to try and breath in, you know, cause she’s a dumbass. To be fair she did get the wind knocked out of her five seconds ago. 

It felt like her body was having a huge brain freeze, but she didn’t have too much time to think about how cold it was. She was losing her breath but the eel just kept on pushing her down. This was when panic was starting to set in. 

How far down were they already? How much breath did she have left? Was Ro going to be ok?

She managed to fight the current and punched the animal in the nose, at least what she’d thought to be a nose, eels don’t really have noticeable noses. It’s eyes narrowed and it let out this sort of awful scream. 

Y/N bended as much water as she could and pushed it towards it, trying to get as much space between them as possible. The water slowly started to circle around it and started to pick up pace, the eel couldn’t get past the strong currents and would only get pushed back. The water turns into ice and it ceases to move.

Y/N pushed herself to the surface and crawled out of the water, she rolled onto her back and tried to breathe. She could feel her whole body going numb, the air was somehow colder than the water now and she was starting to think that in comparison the water was more of a hot tub. Maybe she should just crawl back in.

Once the dots in her eyes and the ringing in her ears disappeared she noticed someone had been yelling. She rolled over and if her lungs didn’t feel like they had exploded and been grounded to mush she would’ve laughed. He was  _ still  _ there.

Zuko was frantically trying to get the ice shackles she’d made for him off of his hands by firebending and banging them onto the side of the sled. Ro was across from him at another hole the eel had made, he must have mistaken it for the one she had gotten pushed into. She swore he was looking into the water and was on the brink of tears, who knew polar bears had so much emotion

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m trying!” Zuko yelled at Ro while continuously slamming the shackles onto the sled, quickly getting more violent. 

Y/N reached out and tugged on his shirt. 

Zuko ceased what he was doing and yanked his head towards her direction. Y/N shakily brought her hand up and waved towards Ro’s direction. He ran towards her and sat by her side, he wasn’t whining anymore, what a drama queen. She patted his head and reminded herself to give him a treat later. 

Y/N brought her attention back to Zuko and furrowed her eyebrows.

“What are you still doing here?” She asked.

Zuko pulled a face, like  _ she  _ was the stupid one. 

“What?”

“You could’ve run away just now, you could even leave now I’m practically half dead.” She tried getting up but ended just falling down again, proving her point. “For a prince you’re kind of dumb.”

Zuko grimaced, like she had just slapped him in the face. Something else seemed to cross his mind too, like he was fighting with himself. She guessed it must have crossed his mind, leaving her behind and escaping, but for some reason he hadn’t. Y/N couldn’t stop thinking about what kept him from doing it. What was with him?

“I wouldn’t get very far anyway,” Was his only answer. She knew it was a shit excuse but was too tired to interrogate.

Zuko extended both of his arms towards her, expecting you to accept him wanting to help you up.

“You piss me off,” Y/N muttered.

Zuko’s face turned into one of bafflement. “ _ I  _ piss  _ you _ off?” His eyes narrowed and he threw his hands into the air in frustration. “If you’d just gotten rid of these stupid chains, I could have helped!”

“See, that’s what pisses me off about you.” She said. “You’re not supposed to be helping me, we’re not on equal ground here!”

“What? I just wanted to help.” Zuko’s face fell and for half a second Y/N thought she’d hurt his feelings.

Y/N finally got it. What Zuko had been pulling wasn’t kindness, it was pity. He pitied her. Why else would he have made things so easy for her? Why else would he have been so compliant? What other reason could there have been for him to not escape during the two chances he had been given. Everyone from the Fire Nation was the same. She’d seen the same look Zuko would give her on General Lee’s face when he’d destroyed her home. She begged and begged for him to spare her and bring back her family. And that day she saw something cross his face. Pity. He pitied her. 

And she was thankful for it. Could you believe it? She was  _ thankful.  _ At the time she thought he had handed her mercy, but overtime she realized she was getting toyed with. He knew the task he’d given her was impossible. Yet, Y/N did it. And for once, when she comes and delivers this pain in the ass to the other pain in the ass, he’d be the last person to ever give her that expression again. 

“Look.” Y/N begins. “We are NOT friends and we never will be. So quit getting in my way and trying to act like you actually care.”

“How do you know I don’t?” He asked. 

“You’re from the Fire Nation, aren’t you?”

“I mean yes, but--”

“Then that just proves it.”

|

|

“Sokka, this is getting us nowhere,” Toph said for the billionth. 

They’d been flying towards the south with Appa for hours now and hadn't seen anything and by nothing at all he meant  _ nothing _ . It was just all snow. It sort of reminded Sokka of home but if it was completely barren. Everyone was starting to get tired, which was understandable. They’d been up all night and the rising sun was there to prove it. The cold really didn’t help either. Everyone was a shivering mess except for Aang.

“This makes no sense.” Sokka held up a map he’d bought from the village from earlier. “Stuff is supposed to be here, you know like buildings. There’s even supposed to be another village a few hours away too.”

He swore that if this wasn’t a literal tundra a tumbleweed would be seen.

“Well  _ I _ can’t see anything. Literally,” Toph said sarcastically. 

Sokka was starting to think that the map he’d bought was some kind of rip off or something. There was nothing here but snow and ice. He was starting to lose hope about being able to find Zuko quickly. Things weren’t looking too good. 

“Hey look.” Suki pointed towards the ground and at first Sokka couldn’t see what he was trying to point out, but when he took a closer look he saw it. 

“Aang, get Appa to land there,” Katara said. 

“Yip, yip!”

Sokka was the first to get off and investigate. It was an igloo, sort of like the ones back home. Something was odd though. There were always multiple, making up one whole village or tribe. This one stood alone, Sokka would go as far as to say it looked sad. Half of it looked poorly rebuilt too, like someone haphazardly built it back up themself, which was in great contrast to the well made part of the igloo. 

“I think this is somebody’s house,” Sokka said.

“Yeah, like the ones back at home.” Katara put her hand up to the igloo in an almost homesick demeanor. 

“Guys,” Toph had her hands on the ground. “The snow and ice might be messing me up but, I feel something hollow underneath that thing.”

“Is it really okay for us to go in there?” Aang asked. 

Toph got up from her position and walked right in.

“Guess that answers it then.” Aang and Katara walked in after her.

Sokka turned towards Suki before walking inside.

“I’m gonna check out more of what’s out here,” She said.

Sokka nodded and told her to be careful.

The interior of the igloo was almost . . . homey. There were lots of shelves with books towering all the way to the top, pretty mirrors that looked awfully similar to the ones the girl he and everyone talked to sold filled a part of the wall, lots of rugs decorated the floor all of them looked like they had different styles, but somehow they all worked together. Herbs and medicinal notes sat on a tea table next to tea cups. There was a sleeping bag on the floor that looked recently folded. Sokka couldn’t place it, but something felt wrong. Even though the room looked complete, things looked like they were missing somehow.

“Toph, didn’t you say you felt something underground? I don’t see any doors leading to it,” Aang said.

Toph pointed to a wall, “There.”

Katara motioned her hands towards the wall and took it down. Behind it was a small flight of stairs. 

“Okayyyy this has officially weirded me out,” Sokka said.

Aang grabbed some of the paper off of the wall and observed them. 

“Whoever did this was planning for a long time,” He said.

“Yeah but why?” Sokka asked.

He walked up to the small desk in the corner of the room. There were basic desk things like ink, writing brushes, and paper, but Sokka noticed something that looked completely out of place. On the desk, nothing looked out of place and everything was neat, yet the room was messy and unkempt. So the crumpled up piece of paper on the desk really stood out. Sokka picked it up and read it. 

“He’s acting like a detective again,” Katara joked.

Aang and Toph snickered.

_ “Dear  _ _ fuckass  _ _ General Lee, _

_ I’ll be on my way soon to bring someone new,  _

_ so don’t flake out on me _

_ I’m not kidding, I'll gouge your eyes out and boil them like eggs and feed them to my pet polar bear.  _

_ Anyway, I get to pick where we meet this time since you fucked me over the last.  _

_ The waterfall.  _

_ You’re not that dunce so I’m sure you’ll figure it out _

_ Have a shitty evening you Fire Nation pussy.” _

Sokka could now see why she might have crumpled the letter up and started over. 

“They’ve given him to a Fire Nation general,” Sokka said. 

He waved the letter around and let them read it. At least they sorta had a lead now, he’d need to take another look at any of the maps he had and mark down any waterfalls. 

“This is bad,” Aang said. 

Sokka nodded and there was a pause of silence. If they didn’t find Zuko before Y/N turned him in, things were going to get a lot more complicated, that’s what he guessed that was on everyone’s mind. They had to find him soon. 

One thing that confused Sokka was why someone that obviously wasn’t from the Fire Nation was helping a General. From the looks of it, this was someone who was from a Water Tribe, so why would they be helping someone completely against them? Brainwashing? Blackmail? Mutual hate for the Prince of the Fire Nation? 

Sokka pondered on the last one, it was the most convincing. He had a feeling Zuko had angered a lot of people before joining their group. He’d even say after.

“Guys!” 

Everyone turned their heads when they heard Suki’s voice. She was waiting for them in front of the door leading to the staircase.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“There are tracks behind the igloo. If I’m guessing right that’ll lead us right to him,” She said. 

Sokka finally felt hope rise up in his chest. Maybe things would go smoother than he’d thought. 


	3. CH.3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fight! no wait why are u crying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like it :)

It was really late. The sun had set an hour ago, the darkness adding sort of an ominous effect to the surroundings. Big trees that Y/N could usually recognize loomed over her almost menacingly. She was lost. The monster she had to fight at the lake had set them back quite a bit, Y/N had planned on getting here much earlier, making it easier for her to find her checkpoint, a small cabin. 

Not to mention, it would have also been easier for her and the dunce to avoid stray Fire Nation traps.

“Stop squirming, dumbass!” She hushed. 

“Oh yeah, sure. Let me just stop the blood rushing to my head too while I’m at it,” Zuko replied sarcastically. He’d been hanging from a tree for a while now, why was Fire Nation rope so thick?

Y/N huffed and slashed at the rope with water one last time. He landed onto the snow with a loud thud and struggled to get up on his feet. She’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a gentler way for her to get him down. When he was finally able to get back up on his feet he sneered at her. She only smiled and shrugged. 

“I got you down didn’t I?”

“You’re insufferable.”

“So I’ve been told.” She turned around. “Now come on, you’re slowing us down and it’s only getting darker.”

Zuko groaned and threw his head back in what Y/N almost thought was despair. She understood that this was a bit tedious, for the record it was cold, dark, and they’d been turned around by traps an undesirable amount of times. (There were much more than the last she was here.) But, were the theatrics really needed?

“We’ve been walking for hours, do you even know where we’re going!?”

Y/N didn’t answer and hoped he wouldn’t notice her uncertainty. She knew where the place was, well almost at least, she just didn’t know where they were at the moment. There’s a difference. Her wishes for Prince annoying to just drop the subject aren't answered when they let the thirteenth second of unsure silence set in. 

He scoffs and his expression turns into one of bewilderment. 

“Wow! You don’t do you?”

Y/N gets defensive and places her hands in front of her chest. 

“Of course I do.” She feigned confidence and vaguely gestured towards a direction. “It’s obviously this way.”

Zuko quirked an eyebrow, “You sure? Cause that tree looks awfully familiar . . .”

Suddenly they both hear shouting and the sound of multiple footsteps. Not towards them but too close for it to be ignored. Zuko narrowed his eyes and took a step closer to Y/N. 

“Who--”

“I don’t know,” Y/N dismissed him before he could say anything else. She brought her index finger up to her mouth and pursed her lips, trying to tell Ro to be as quiet as he could and to stay where he was. She then looked back towards Zuko. 

“You stay here too,” She commanded.

“You’re kidding. I don’t need to be babysat by some bear,” Zuko contradicted. 

Y/N was completely done with his constant disagreement and only let out an exasperated sigh. She rolled her eyes and had already begun checking to see if she was well enough to fight if it came up. Her arm still hurt quite a bit but she had no time to heal it, and now wasn’t a good time either. 

“No, I’m  _ not. _ ” Y/N turned around and began to head towards the noise. 

“Wait!” Zuko called out. Y/N halted and turned back around towards him. 

“I can be backup.” He argued. “Plus, I don’t think it would be smart to leave the person you captured alone, right?”

Y/N thought about it for a moment, sure he had a point but she had a feeling his intentions weren’t what he made them seem to be. She’d decided it was a risk either way so it didn’t really matter. Y/N would hate having to ask for help on something she could definitely do herself but having a helping hand wouldn’t hurt either. 

“Fine,” She decided. 

“Thank you.” Spirits, why was he being polite?

“Whatever.”

Y/N tied Ro’s harness to a tree and then started to head out with Zuko closely behind her. Y/N quickly headed into the darkness, trying to avoid making as much noise as possible. The trees make it easier for them to sneak around without being seen yet the sound of crunching snow made her uneasy. Zuko was annoyingly good at being as quiet as possible. He moved so lightly, sometimes she’d forget he was even next to her. 

When they’d finally reached the end of the voices they both hid behind a set of trees and listened in.

“You’re hearing things, man. There’s no one here,”

Fire Nation soldiers. 

She had a hunch, they’d been here ever since she’d been hunting down the Prince, it was too much of a coincidence to ignore. Y/N thought that it might have had to do with General Lee, she had this feeling that he was trying to put pressure on her or something. This always caused Y/N to run into trouble when she came here. Every few months they would get closer and closer to where her checkpoint was stationed. Today was no different. Y/N was starting to get worried, they were getting closer to it, she didn’t want to think about what would happen if they found it. The cabin was one of the last places she had left.

Y/N guessed this situation didn’t turn out too bad though, although this meant that they were getting closer, it also meant that she wasn’t lost anymore. They’d practically led her to it.

There were two of them. Y/N looked over to Zuko and realized he was getting ready to fight them. She panicked and moved from her hiding spot to his as quickly. She practically tackled him and put her hand over his mouth. 

“Are you dense!? There’s more of them near here,” She whispered. 

One of the soldiers turned his head and took a few steps towards the tree they were hiding behind. 

“Did you hear that?” He asked. 

“Okay, now you’re just being paranoid.” The second soldier laughed.

“I swear something about these woods is off though . . .” The first muttered. The second only rolled his eyes and walked where the first one was. 

The two both held their breath. 

“It’s just the forest man.” He said. “What are we even doing here anyway?”

“Looking for some girl, you know the one. Apparently she comes through here.” He finally stepped away from the tree and Y/N let the breath she was holding slip past her lips. She’d realized Zuko was still pinned to her, she mouthed a sorry and he only looked away. 

“What? General Lee afraid of getting his ass beat by some little girl?”

The other stifled a laugh before a shout interrupted the two. 

As three more soldiers entered from the woods the two from before turned towards them and dropped what they were talking about. Y/N thought they must have been from higher ranks because a sort of tension had suddenly filled the air.

“We’ve received news that we are to be called back until morning.” The third soldier spoke up, he stood out among all of them so he must have been in charge between the five of them. 

“General Lee will also be arriving in a few days or so,” He threw them a menacing stare. “I highly suggest you two learn how to watch your mouths before then.” 

The two soldiers swallowed and averted their eyes from him. They muttered a pathetic ‘yes sir’. A few more seconds and Y/N heard five sets of footsteps beginning to get further away.

The girl sighed and moved from behind the tree. This was going to be a problem later, but she didn’t really feel like thinking about it right now. So she decided the problem didn’t exist anymore. Zuko obviously had other plans. 

“That’s a problem,” He stated. 

“Won’t have to worry about it till morning.” She replied. 

Zuko began to get up and brush off some of the snow on him. For once he didn’t say anything back. He was planning something, Y/N just didn’t know what yet. 

|

|

Getting the wind knocked out of you twice in a day can really take a toll on someone’s mental health. Or else Y/N wouldn’t be seriously thinking about killing the one person she needed to keep alive. Turns out she was right, he  _ was _ planning something. That something was an attack. 

When the two had finally arrived at the checkpoint he’d something along the lines of ‘LeT mE gO’ obviously Y/N didn’t comply since that would defeat the whole point. Then next thing she knew he’d attacked her when she’d turned her back, stupid on her part, though she really didn’t see it coming. He had never tried anything until now so she thought she had no reason to think he would do anything stupid. She was obviously wrong. 

Y/N’s back hit a bookshelf harshly, books spiraled to the ground and some landed onto her head with a thud. Her hands were pinned above her head before she knew it. His breathing was all off, he’s still weak, yet he still managed to pull this off. 

“Finally showing your true colors, huh Prince?” She teased. It wasn’t appropriate but she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to rub it in his face. He was a liar, just like she thought. Y/N found it sick how he was pulling this goody goody act up until she turned her back to him, literally. What was he gaining anyway? Why go through all that trouble? He could have done this since the beginning. People Y/N hated always seemed to have such confusing agendas. 

“This is no time for you to think you have the higher ground.”

Y/N only rolled her eyes in response, resulting in more pressure being added to her pinned hands. She winced, what a pushover. 

“ _ Fine.  _ Just quite it will you? I’m injured, you hothead,” She complained. 

He actually loosened his grip, a flash of regret on his face.

“I’m going to ask you one last time, who are you?” Zuko demanded. 

Y/N laughed. “You think I’m dumb enough to tell you? Now that’s funny.”

The Prince scowled and edged the fire in his hand closer to her face. Trying to back away did her no good, she had nowhere to go, it was too hot. 

“Tell me.”

He inched the flames closer with every second that passed. Y/N knew he wasn’t actually going to hurt her, if he was going to he would have sooner. It also helped that she knew something in him would stop her from being totally hurt, he looked apprehensive even when they were fighting, and he still did now. She could tell by his fighting style that he was holding back, he barely hit her even once, only backing her up into a corner and getting rid of her waterskin, rendering her defenseless. 

She would just have to wait this out. 

Y/N kept her mouth shut and let a small smile slip when she saw his expression fall. When she saw his hand hesitate she knew she’d won. 

“What is it? Don’t have the guts or something?” She asked. 

Zuko’s eyes narrowed and he swung his fist dangerously close to the side of her face. More books fall and Y/N is 100% sure that her bookshelf is now broken, what a waste. His fist is still on fire. 

“Name.” He growled. 

Y/N sighed, if he was really going to wreck all of her furniture maybe her name wasn’t all that important. To be honest, she never gave any of the people who she captured her name, to her even that was too much of a close connection. Maybe it was her knowing what she was doing was somewhat selfish, but she didn’t want anyone she turned in to have any glimpse of what she was like, the guilt would be too much. She already accidentally broke that rule with this pain in the ass. She was so close, this would be the last one. Who cared if he finally recognized her?

“Y/N.” She finally answered. “It’s Y/N.”

Something flashed in his eyes and he relaxed for half a second. Not even a second only half, but that was all she needed. She buttheaded him as hard as she could. Zuko yelped and let go of both her hands, he stumbled back and brought his hands up to his face. Y/N fought the urge to do so as well. Note to self, buttheading isn’t the best kind of attack. Y/N high kicked him before he could block and he fell to the ground. She grabbed his wrists and held them above his head before planting a knee on his stomach. 

“Guess I do have the higher ground after all,” She huffed. 

He scrunched up his face and the expression of realization finally pulled through. 

“I know you.”

Y/N put more pressure into his stomach with her knee. 

“Guess you do, what a shame.”

“Why are you doing this?”

She faltered for a second before regaining her confidence. Why did she feel like shit right now? 

“Doesn’t matter,” Was her answer.

“The person you’re doing this for, it’s not going to end well with him. You’re going to regret it,” He claimed. 

Y/N stopped and sort of went blank. She knew he was mostly right. Y/N would rather die than admit it, she wasn’t doing this just for the fun of it. She knew  _ exactly  _ what she was risking. 

She punched him right in the face. And,  _ oh,  _ did it feel good. 

His nose was bloody, his dumb face finally looked tolerable. 

This was the angriest she’d been in a while. Come to think about it, she hadn’t been this angry in forever. It felt good almost. 

Something about him trying to warn her, no it wasn’t a warning, something else. He was almost chastising her. Y/N went as far as to say he was outright scolding, like he was her mom or something. Like he knew her well enough to give her unneeded advice. And shitty advice at that. Did he think she was dumb enough to not consider that would be a possibility? Of course she had. She thought about it everyday, how basically all odds were against her and she practically was putting all of her eggs into a basket that was seconds away from tearing. She knew, of course she did. But Y/N didn’t care anymore. If she went through with this and it really did go south, at least she would know she never ever gave up. Or else she’d never be able to live with herself. 

Blood dripped down Zuko’s chin and she almost caught herself feeling bad. His eyes were only half open and Spirits, did he look like  _ shit _ . He gave her the dirtiest glare and she was glad, it gave her a reason to keep hating him with no guilt whatsoever. 

People really can’t keep up for a facade for long and the Prince was living proof wasn’t he? She knew he’d attack her sooner or later, it’s what always happened. This was the only time it had worked. Y/N really is surprised with her own stupidity. She fell for it. She fucking fell for it. 

The hateful looks the Prince would send her way when her back was turned were all too noticeable. He was angry, and rightfully so. 

The point was, he wasn’t in the place to be telling her what to do or not do.

“What I’ll regret or not has nothing to do with you,” She fumed. 

Zuko tried his best to let out a scoff and threw his head back against the wall with a gentle thud. He smiled. He  _ smiled _ . Blood stained his teeth.

“Fine then.” He sighed and closed his eyes. Almost like he was ready for a nap. “I read the letters on your desk though, General Lee’s not the best man to make a deal with.”

Y/N bit her lip. She was uncomfortable with how much he knew already. He opened his eyes and stared her down. 

“Just saying.”

She clenched and unclenched her fist before finally grabbing some rope and tying him up. She made sure to do it as roughly as possible to let off some more steam, and maybe just to piss him off just a little bit more. 

“Just shut up, yeah?” She gave him a bitter smile and tied the last knot as tightly as possible. The pained look on his face was satisfactory enough. 

“You’ve been saying that a lot. Sort of annoying,” He said. 

“Then stop talking,” She shot back. 

She got up and wiped her hands on her pants. Her knuckles hurt a lot, so did her forehead, and her arm. Wow, she had more injuries than she remembered. She must look horrible too, she hasn’t slept for about two days and then fought an eel and has been babysitting a himbo during the whole thing. Y/N silently applauded herself. 

It had to be close to 1 a.m by now. Sleep was probably out of the question. Sometimes Y/N wished she wasn’t alone so that someone else could keep watch. She picked up the waterskin Zuko had grabbed off of her when they’d fought off of the floor and brushed off the dust. She waterbended some of it onto her arm and just let it sit there. The healing always took a while since she wasn’t so great at it. Y/N walked back up to Zuko and sat in front of him. 

“Do you  _ have _ to sit so close?” He complained.

Y/N raised her eyebrows. “Do you think I’m dumb? After all of this you expect me not to keep a close eye on you?”

Zuko groaned and only closed his eyes again. She wished she could do the same. She was so tired, so exhausted that she thought it would kill her. Her whole body ached and her eyes felt like they had weights on top of them. She could hear Zuko’s breath slow, of course he didn’t snore. 

She found herself again being jealous of someone she hated. Y/N was disappointed to say it wasn’t the first time.

|

|

When Zuko woke up he thought he was dying. Like  _ dying, _ dying. 

He was getting tired of waking up feeling like he was going to throw up. And he was even more tired of being woken up by  _ her _ . It was either a punch, kick, or shove, either way he hated it. Zuko kept his eyes closed hoping she’d think he died in his sleep or something. 

“I know you’re awake,” She said. 

Zuko still kept his eyes closed and tried to seem as dead as possible. Doing that gets sort of hard when cold water gets splashed in your face.

“For fucks sake!” He yelled. 

She smirked and then bended the water out of his clothes. 

“Wouldn’t have happened if you just woke up.”

He didn’t say anything in response and glared at her. She held up her hands in defense. 

“Relax! You’re dry now.” She turned around and picked up something off of the floor. “Now get up we’re leaving. Those guys are gonna be here soon.” She muttered the last part.

The sun still wasn’t up, had she not slept at all? The room was different than last night. It was clean. Albeit there was a table missing now but the bookshelf was fixed and the books were all back in there places. He noticed something else too. 

His wounds were bandaged, messily, but still bandaged. She was bandaged too, maybe even more than he was. He didn’t remember getting so many hits in but he was proud nonetheless. 

Zuko scoffed when he got up, earning him a weird look from Y/N. He didn’t really care though. 

“You’re a hypocrite,” He said. 

Y/N didn’t look at him. She knew what he meant she just didn’t want to admit it. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Zuko shrugged. He got his point across. What a weird girl. 

He stayed there for a little while before she’d told him to head outside and wait for her. Which was odd to say the least, but he complied. It was still odd though. Y/N looked almost sad. She kept looking around like the whole world was going to cave in from under her. 

He’d been waiting here for a while though and he hated that he was starting to get worried. And not because he cared, not that wasn’t it. 

It couldn't be. 

It was because Zuko swore he heard pairs of voices in the woods. They’d get closer and closer every time he’d hear them again, at first he thought he was hearing things. But when he’d begun to hear footsteps that was what started to make him panic. 

It was barely morning, why were they already so close?

Zuko ran inside and looked for Y/N. 

“Y/N!” He yelled. 

When he didn’t get an answer, he debated just leaving without her. But, he was a good person now, and Aang would say good people wouldn’t do that. Zuko groaned. Why did he decide to become all buddy buddy with the sappiest group in the world?

He ran up the stairs and entered a random small room. He regretted it but he really had no choice. 

“--miss you guys.” Y/N laughed, it was soft. 

She sniffed and gently placed the palm of her hand on the wall and took a shaky breath in. Zuko got a look at what was on the wall. 

Signatures. There were signatures etched into the wood, and a lot of them too. He didn’t want to imagine what had happened to them, he could imagine  _ who _ did it though. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out and it would explain Y/N’s hatred for him. Zuko felt a huge wave of guilt hit him. 

He coughed and her head snapped towards him with such speed and force he thought it would spin off. Her face went through a marathon of expressions. Annoyance, embarrassment, and fury. She wiped at her eyes as quickly as she could. Her hands were balled up into fists, like a kids. Zuko felt even gultier than before, he’d embarrassed her. 

“I thought I told you to stay outside?” She asked, moving a bit to cover what was on the wall. He felt like the question was meant to come off as more aggressive, like a command, menacing. But it came out raw and soft, like she had whispered it. Zuko would be dumb to point it out to her so he didn’t. 

“I think those soldiers from last night are back,” He said. 

As if on cue, a pair of unfamiliar voices were heard from afar. 

Y/N’s eyes widened and she mumbled something under her breath. The girl picked up whatever she needed from the room as quickly as possible and then roughly grabbed Zuko’s arm. 

“How close are they?” She asked. 

“Close.” He was pulled from one room to another, watching her pick up as much stuff as possible. She looked frantic and anxious, something he’d never seen in her till now. It looked almost unnatural, ever since he’d met her he always saw her as someone that always had things under control. 

“It was hard to tell at first since they were moving so quietly . . .” Y/N only kept moving and muttering under her breath, completely ignoring the alarming closeness of the voices and footsteps. Zuko, at this point, was starting to get frantic. He tried to remind himself that the place was rather well hidden, but no amount of shrubbery and wood was going to stop Fire Nation soldiers if they were looking for someone or something. And he spoke from experience. 

It was when he was dragged around once more that he decided to say something. 

“Shouldn’t we be leaving?!” He asked. 

“Just a few more things . . .” She trailed off. The sentence wasn’t directed at him, it was more for herself. They didn’t have time, though. She was now carrying a plethora of things in two bags slinged around her body. What was she doing? 

The last room she’d brought him to was. . . odd. It somehow looked like her. 

“Is this--this is your room?” He asked. 

Y/N clearly hesitated. Completely halting in the action of grabbing a picture frame that was turned over for some reason. 

“Yes,” She finally answered. 

Zuko kept looking around almost bewildered. There was also this feeling in the air where he felt like he shouldn’t be here. It felt too . . . too  _ personal _ . He felt the same about the whole place actually, there were too many memories that he felt like he shouldn’t be seeing. They weren’t obvious but it was clear enough to be seen, like the lines etched into the wall slowly getting higher and the years being written next to them. Zuko wasn’t used to seeing stuff like that. 

In the palace everything was pristine almost 100% of the time. Everything was always in its place and things always looked grand and new, nothing less. Nothing seemed to have personality. This whole place was the complete opposite yet it was so small. Zuko can’t remember one place in the entire palace that looked like anything but nothingness. Even his own room felt empty, nothing that showed a smidge of his personality was in it. There was no trace of him or anyone else. 

“Ok done.” Y/N stuffed one last thing into her bag and grabbed him again. “Let’s go.”

Before they could head downstairs there was a big boom. And then the familiar smell of smoke. 

Zuko hadn’t realized just how close they had gotten in such a small amount of time. Y/N’s eyes widened and brought the both of them back to her room. She let go of his arm and went to open a window. She snuck a look outside and then brought her attention to him. Zuko was trying and failing to figure out what she was planning.

“They’re not out back. We’re jumping,” She casually said. 

“This is a two story building.”

“What sounds better? Possibly breaking a few bones, or burning to death?”

She moved quickly and bended his cuffs away. He only had a second to be thankful for being able to use his hands freely again.

“What’s your plan?” Zuko asked. 

More footsteps. 

“I just told you,” She replied. 

“Oh, right. I meant  _ after  _ we jump to our deaths and into a fleet of soldiers.”

Y/N waterbended ice onto the handle of the door. The anxious girl didn’t have time to answer because of a strong yell echoing through the small cabin. 

“The three of you head upstairs!” The demand was followed by a set of loud and quick footsteps. 

“Alright here we go.” Y/N got a head start and ran, and the next she was gone. She’d actually jumped. 

Zuko looked out the window and found her buried in snow, she had this funny look on her face. 

When she caught his eye she waved her arms around frantically, telling him to come down. When Zuko started to doubt whether or not he should do so, the aggressive jingle of a door handle convinced him. He braced himself and jumped. Zuko landed onto the ground with a small ‘oof’, the snow was soft. It didn’t completely break his landing but it helped. When he opened his eyes an arm was extended his way. 

“Come on!” Y/N ushered him. 

He reached out and met her hand. 

“We have to get Ro, he’s not to far from here--”

“Hey!” A stray Fire Nation soldier accusedly pointed at the two. If things couldn’t get worse four more strayed behind him. 

Zuko set himself into a fighting stance, getting ready for whatever was to come, before he felt himself getting dragged away for what felt like the billionth time. 

“What are you doing?!” He questioned her. The soldiers were close behind, and were yelling at them to stop. 

“We can’t fight them all,” She replied. 

She was a fast runner, it was hard for Zuko to keep up with her. They kept running deeper into the woods and he wondered where they were heading. He didn’t realize that they’d lost the soldiers they were running from until they reached a cave. 

“Ro!” Y/N yelled out. 

Nothing. 

Zuko didn’t know if she knew it but Y/N was still holding his hand and when she’d gotten no answer she squeezed it tight. 

“Ro?” This one came out more as a question. 

That was when Zuko had noticed some tracks and fur leading back towards the cabin. They’d taken him before going after them, this was planned. 

Guessing from the second inhumanely strong squeeze from her hand she had noticed it too. Her other hand was clenched so hard that her knuckles looked like they were turning white. 

“They took him,” Y/N finally let go of his hand and slumped down to her knees, she didn’t seem to be worried about him trying to run away at the moment. “Spirits they  _ took _ him.”

Then soot flew around the air and softly landed in the snow, Zuko turned and brought his eyes back from where they ran from. The cabin was burning. 

“You know,” Y/N took in a shaky breath. “Every time I think I don’t have anything they can take away from me they prove me wrong.” She tried laughing but her voice was too strained.

Zuko sat down next to her and balled up some snow in his hands. 

“I’m sorry.”

Y/N looked at him shocked with tears in her eyes, this time she didn’t bother to wipe them away. Y/N looked at him like he’d just started speaking another language.

“Thank you,” She replied. She looked down and averted his eyes.

It was so quiet, a hushed whisper, but he heard it. Progress. 


	4. CH.4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> girl gets told she might die and ignores it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahaha hope u like it

Many argue that the crunching of snow under the weight of someone’s foot, while they’re on a leisurely walk, is one of the most relaxing sounds in the world. Y/N argues that it’s mediocre at best. Your shoes get wet and your toes go numb. When you take a step your whole foot gets submerged into the snow and sometimes the shoe stays stuck there and you don’t notice so now your sock is completely wet. Yes, Y/N is implying that this has already happened three times. She swears she heard the Prince laugh the third time it happened. 

Y/N bumping into Zuko’s shoulder for the 13th time had knocked her off her ‘why snow isn’t that great’ rant. This had been the thirteenth time they’d bumped shoulders and now she was convinced he was doing it just to annoy her. She tried to ignore it and keep walking. 

Bump.

14.

“Ok, break.” She groaned. 

Almost immediately both of them fell into the snow. Y/N laid on her back and sprawled out her hands, months ago she would have thought to make a snow angel. Her body and mind ached, and she couldn’t figure out which one hurt the worst. 

The Prince supported his body up on his elbows and was looking at her rather intently. It was bothersome. Not to mention he’d been doing so ever since they’d been walking away from the cabin, that was hours ago, so that must have meant it was around noon now. 

Neither of them had said a word since then. Only stolen looks and the fleeting feeling of brushing hands which were much worse than the shoulder bumps. Why were his hands so pleasantly warm? Even the slightest touch and she could feel it, the heat, the warmth. 

At one point it had gotten so unbearable that she decided to cuff him with ice. Which he didn’t protest, just a barely noticeable scowl. Y/N hadn’t planned on doing so since he’d always complained but the contact was much worse than his nagging.

She was jealous of the warmth he had though. Not only jealous but extremely  _ embarrassed.  _

If anyone had cried in front of someone that you’re supposed to seem strong and resilient to, of course there would be some drawbacks in confidence. So she’d told herself to not say a word. Because, well speaking on it would just make things awkward, so not speaking and just trying to forget it was the best option. So that was exactly what she did. When it had been just a couple minutes of them sitting in front of the cave(part of her hoped Ro would magically appear if they had just waited)Y/N had suddenly stood up, only waving her hand for him to follow. And that was the most communication they had for hours. 

But he kept staring. 

Every time she’d catch him he would avert his gaze almost always a second too late. He wanted to say something, but then never did. Y/N just pretended that she hadn’t noticed and kept looking up towards the sky like it was the most interesting thing in the world, which in a sense it was. It was cloudy, she wondered which type it was. 

He was still staring. 

Y/N shifted her head and looked his way. 

“What is it?” Her voice was aggressive. It had come out to be so but Y/N was more mildly annoyed than anything else.

Zuko looked away far too slowly, bringing his gaze up to some random spot in the snow. 

“Uh, nothing.” He blew air out of his face with his mouth. 

“It’s nothing,” He repeated. 

Liar. It was obviously something. People don’t just stare at others for the fun of it, that would be boring. 

“Just spit it out.” Please don’t be about her crying. Please don’t be about her crying. Please don’t--

“No uh . . . your bandages have been falling off for a while now, it’s bothering me.” He affirmed. 

It was an excuse. He was almost too obvious. Sure, Y/N’s bandages were currently unraveling themselves on her arm but that was now. What about the other times, she was 99.9% sure that her bandages were fine before now. She was never very good at tying them though, maybe she was overreacting a little bit, a little too on edge. Y/N never really cared about other people judging her but something about his gaze sometimes made her feel small and uncertain of herself and her actions. She hated it.

She didn’t feel like pushing him any further, he didn’t look like he was going to let up. How annoying. 

Y/N sat up and brushed the snow off her hair before looking at her patched-up arm. The Prince was right, it looked even messier than before. She tore it off and then immediately regretted it. It stung, and hard. The air felt extremely cold against the wound, she didn’t remember it being all open like that, the least she’d expected was a bruise. Dried blood soaked the bandages and Y/N didn’t remember that either. Spirits, did she have dementia or something? The most that she could recall was a few scratches with barely any blood. Had she missed it somehow?

“That looks bad,” Zuko stupidly pointed out. 

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Zuko frowned at her sarcasm, it was really too easy egging him on like that. She knew he barely tolerated her and used it against him, it was fun almost.

Y/N got rid of the used bandages and took out new ones out of one of her bags. She unraveled it and got to work. To be quite honest she was never really good at tending to wounds, she’d been taught the basics but she was always too impatient to listen in class, her friends would always make fun of her. That was part of the only reason she wasn’t completely littered in scars, for someone who practiced serums and medicines this was sort of pathetic. She just plain wasn’t all that good at it. It was the same with using water to heal as well. 

After the fourth time of trying to tie the gauze to her arm, Y/N threw it to the ground in a fit of frustration. It wasn’t only because of the fact she absolutely sucked at this, but because he was staring.  _ Again. _

“What?” She grumbled. 

“No wonder mine are so messy,” He commented. 

Y/N nearly gasped, was he serious right now? 

“Let me do them for you?” He asked. 

_ Was he serious right now? _

Y/N hesitated but then looked over to her injured arm and the ruined bandages. Whatever it’s not like this little amount of interaction would change anything. Y/N hated when people touched her now, but this wasn’t really touching was it? This doesn’t count.

“Fine.” Y/N decided.

He edged over next to her and then held out his cuffed hands. When she did nothing he looked at her in disbelief. 

“You can’t expect me to do this with my hands tied.” 

Y/N shrugged and almost let a smirk slip. “I don’t know, it’d be funny to see you try.”

He rolled his eyes and motioned his hands towards her again, this time she actually took them off. 

He grabbed the gauze and went to put it onto her arm. She flinched as soon as he’d touched her, he was so warm. Had he not even noticed?

“Sorry,” He said. There was no reason for it but he did. Y/N didn’t reply, she merely nodded and let him wrap it around her arm. He was gentle. She couldn’t remember the last time someone else did this for her. 

“You’re really bad at this,” He pointed out. 

“What do you mean?” She asked. 

It was a genuine question. She had reason to believe that he was talking about her poor bandaging skills but the way he’d said it sounded like he meant something else as well. 

“. . .The bandages obviously.”

“Right.”

Then there was a lot of silence, not the awkward kind, but not comfortable either. It was an ok middle. The silence broke every time he had to apologize after tightening the wrapping, but it wasn’t strong. The silence didn’t break like a rock being thrown at glass but more like if you cut through fabric with sharpened scissors. It was nice, the woods were always deathly quiet. 

“Okay done.” He tied the last knot and then let his arms fall to his side. Y/N hated herself for being disappointed that the moment was over. It felt like forever and she feared she was the only one that thought so. She tried to convince herself that he had just weirdly taken forever to tie them, but then that didn’t work either because that meant her thoughts steered towards the care and patience someone was willing to give to her. 

It was done well, it didn’t look like it was going to fall off in an instant. 

“Thanks.” She didn’t look at him. And she didn’t say ‘thank you’ because to her that sounded like she cared too much. Y/N was very grateful though.

“What about you?” She asked. 

“What about me?” He cocked his head and sent a confused expression her way.

Was she dumb? What about him? Why did she say that? It’s not like she owed him a favor or anything, just because he so happened to know how to wrap bandages well didn’t mean something. None of this changed things, nothing ever would. Wow, she  _ was  _ dumb. What was she thinking?

“Nothing. It’s nothing just--nevermind,” She scrambled, both with her words and her things. 

Y/N quickly got up and stepped away from him. She hastily picked up her bags and brushed herself off.

“Let’s go,” She said. 

Zuko frowned. “It’s been barely ten minutes.” 

“There's a small town close to here and we have to get through it before dark, we’ll rest later.” She kept looking at her bandaged arm almost in marvel, how was this done so well? “I have to meet someone. . .” She trailed off at the end. She hadn't meant to say it aloud.

“General Lee?” Zuko got up and they began walking. 

“No, just someone that owes me a favor.”

“Did you kidnap them too?” 

Y/N punched his shoulder and he yelped in protest. 

“ _ No _ . We just happen to know each other.” She corrected. 

“So, a friend.”

“No. . . just someone who owes me.”

Zuko looked at her with a scowl on his face. “Are you that against friends?”

Y/N stopped walking and looked down at her feet. No person would be against friends, it’s physically impossible to not make even the smallest connection with someone, and that includes hatred. Sure that wasn’t friendship, but you still know them, well enough to hate them at least. 

Y/N was never against before. But the less connection you make with someone the less it hurts when it’s over. 

“It’s . . . complicated,” Y/N doesn’t know why she hesitated. Things had always been clear to her, especially after everything that happened. She’d promised herself something, and that something meant a lot to her. Going against what she’d been living by for months(nearly a year now)would just be pathetic. For once she could just plainly say ‘yes’. 

Zuko raised an eyebrow and then looked over to his left. 

“Is it really, though?”

“Yes.” Y/N finally answered, a little pissed off and embarrassed they were talking about this, she felt like she was being taunted. 

“Not like  _ you’re  _ the type to be making friends left and right. I mean you tried to set me on fire when I realized who you were the first time we met.”

“Those were different circumstances!” He defended. “And I do have friends, for your information. I'm not as lonely as you are.” He shot back.

“Did you try and kill them too? Or were those. . . oh wait how did you put it?” Y/N feigned deep thought and put her finger on her chin. “Oh! Different circumstances.”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“Tell me, does it work? Maybe I should be changing my tactic.” She said jokingly. 

“Oh noooo, honestly I think I’m really warming up to you. Might just be the Stockholm syndrome finally setting in, but it could also be your  _ outstanding _ personality.”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh at that one. He was funnier than she’d thought, he didn’t look like he had much of a sense of humor when they’d first met. The Prince had actually said nothing during their first encounter, nothing at all. It was astounding, how he could stay silent for so long, Y/N just couldn’t help but be as talkative as possible. She’d obviously fallen silent when she’d realized who he actually was. 

When there was no more trace of her laugh in the air, the Prince and Y/N said nothing more. Her shoulder bumped into his again but she wasn’t as bothered about it this time. And when it happened again, fighting the urge to hold back a smile had never been so hard. She should have realized then and there that she would never succeed. 

|

|

The fact that the person Y/N was looking for was hiding in plain sight made things 10x more difficult for her. The town’s center had a handful of Fire Nation soldiers roaming around most likely collecting their ‘protection fees’ from local businesses. The crowd of civilians just trying to get through their day had this underlying anxiety and unsureness scratching at its skin and it just never went away. Darting eyes and hesitant footsteps showcased the civilians’ alertness and fear. 

She’d unconsciously tightened her hand around Zuko’s and tugged him a little harder than needed. Of course she was on edge, just hours ago her house had been burnt to the ground by some of the same people. When the both of them had to stop because of a huge crowd Y/N finally got to catch her breath, at least they were blending into the crowd. Just to make sure she looked unidentifiable, Y/N pulled her hood further down her eyes. 

Zuko got pushed into her side by one of the people in the crowd. “This is dangerous, there are soldiers everywhere.”

Y/N couldn’t answer him because someone had roughly tugged her arm and yanked it. 

“Hey!” She yelled out. 

“Shut up and come with me.” The voice said. 

It was a soldier. Yet as soon as Y/N had heard the person’s voice she had nothing to be scared of. It was them.

She’d shot the Prince a look, warning him not to cause a scene, his expression read confused but he stayed quiet. 

They’d caught the eyes of many people in the crowd, some fearsome and some just plain pitiful. This obviously wasn’t something that hadn’t happened before, yet still no one did anything. Of course, Y/N didn’t blame them, fear is something that’s hard to shake off. It’s in you and discreet. When it doesn’t want to be, it's in your eyes and the way your lip twitches. It’s the way your whole body freezes and you can’t move or say anything, and your heart pleads and yells, ‘ _ I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!’.  _ And yet your body stays still and you avert your eyes, you just wait until the moment is over. 

That was exactly what everyone in the town did.

Before she knew it the three of them were in some alley. The soldier finally let go and took off their helmet. Shaggy hair covered their eyes and stuck to their forehead. Y/N recoiled in extreme disgust and they were clearly not happy about it.

“Spirits Tiho! You look disgusting,” She said. 

“Oh whatever,” They ruffled their hair and tried wiping away the sweat with the back of their hand mumbling something about helmet hair. 

“Who is this?” They demanded. 

“A friend.” She answered quickly.

“You said you’d be alone.”

“I never said that.” Y/N lied. 

“ _ Yes _ , you did.”

Y/N huffed they were always so paranoid and although she knew they had every reason to be, it could get a bit tiring. 

Tiho was undercover. Well, not exactly, since they were born in the Fire Nation and had decided to become a footsoldier themselves. It was when the both of them had met. 

Tiho was dying and all the other soldiers had left them because of General Lee’s orders. She’d saved them. That was the favor they owed to each other. It also helped that Tiho had felt betrayed, they’d realized the deep flaws in their nation and was tired of everyone ignoring it. They aided each other and that was all, they both understood there was no friendship in this and that was what Y/N liked about them. At least they understood. 

“Tiho, please. The sooner you tell me what’s been going on, the sooner I’ll be out of your hair.”

Tiho let out a long sigh and looked at a non-existent watch with fake concern, Y/N now realized why they sort of got along. 

“Fine.” Y/N grinned but her happiness was cut off short when they continued. “But! Tell me who this is, I know you don’t do friends idiot. Are you setting me up or something?” They asked skeptically. 

Zuko looked over at Y/N expectantly and she did just the same. 

“I’m um . . .”

“He’s um . . .” 

They both spoke at the same time and Tiho raised her chin in suspicion. Y/N decided that telling the semi truth would be the best, she just wouldn’t mention his name. She was sure if she did Tiho would kill him on the spot. 

“He’s just someone I need to deliver to General Lee.” She said, scratching at the inside of her palm. 

“Really? You haven’t done that in a while.”

Y/N only nodded, afraid that if she said anything else she’d slip up. She was never a very good liar and to her dismay Tiho was very good at knowing when someone was lying, they remembered nearly everything. Y/N didn’t know she had a tell for lying until they happened to point it out once. 

“Where are his cuffs then?” Tiho pointed to Zuko’s cuffless hands. Zuko looked like he’d been caught stealing and hid his hands behind his back, yeah sure, that totally didn’t make things more suspicious. 

“It would just attract attention and that’s the last thing I want. I’m sure you can relate,” She quickly said. 

They narrowed their eyes and stared the both of them down. 

“Alright fine,” Y/N almost let out a breath of relief. “What do you want to know?”

“Why were Lee’s soldiers after me last night? Tiho, they were at my  _ house _ ,” She said. She let a smidge of anger peak through on accident, she didn’t want to seem so mad, it wasn’t exactly their fault. 

“General Lee’s gotten real suspicious of you all of a sudden, think he’s realized how dangerous it is just having you run around buck wild out there.” They informed her.

“But we made a deal, it’s not like I’m planning on killing him or something!” She argued. “Not yet at least.”

“You of all people should know that an asshole like him doesn’t care about sticking to his word. Don’t waste your time and get out of here.”

Y/N’s face fell. She brought her hand and rubbed her temple, this was bad this was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Maybe if she got the Prince to him faster then the deal would still be on, this couldn’t be happening; she  _ needed _ to find out where they were and he was the only one who knew. 

“I can’t--” Y/N started.

“You can.” Tiho reached over and tapped her shoulder twice, their way of affection. Y/N stopped herself from recoiling, it was just their hand that’s all. 

“You’ll get yourself captured or even killed.”

Y/N only stayed silent at that. What was she meant to do?

“Tiho!” Someone yelled. Their heads snapped towards them and Tiho quickly put their helmet back on. 

“Don’t make the wrong decision.”

And with that they left, Tiho ran back to a random group that must’ve been their assigned squadron. Another soldier slapped their back rather roughly while letting out a big laugh. Y/N could see how much they hated it by the way their hands clenched up into fists for barely even a second. She marveled at how well Tiho could hide their emotions. Something Y/N proved again and again she wasn’t all that great at. 

She felt like exploding. She felt like screaming at the top of her lungs until finally fizzling out and collapsing onto the floor, and then lay there and never be able to scream again, her vocal cords forever damaged. Why couldn’t everything just go to plan? Why had he decided to backstab her now, when she was  _ this  _ close. Y/N had never truely trusted him, she would have been dumb to, but this just pissed her off. It pissed her off, it really did, because of course some random small pathetic man has this much of a hole on her. They had made a deal. 

‘Deal:  an agreement entered into by two or more parties for their mutual benefit, especially in a business or political context.’ That was the definition. 

It wasn’t; ‘Deal: to go back on your word and try and get you killed.’ 

Y/N hated this. She hated the general. She hated the Fire Nation for doing what they were doing, and took everything in her to not punch Zuko right in the face because the red he brandished on his clothes was only egging her on. What an ugly color.

How could any sane person do this to so many people. 

That was the worst thing about all this, Y/N knew she wasn’t the only one that got everything strpped away from her in the flash of an eye. She knew it. That never stopped her from being selfish though, she promised herself she would do whatever it took and she did exactly that. So why wasn’t she rewarded? Maybe it was even more selfish of her to expect such a thing.

‘Don’t make the wrong decision.’ Was she meant to just give up? Give up everyone she knew and grew to love with all of her heart. Give that up and just try and keep living a good and honest life while there is a war that’s been dragging on for years on end. Just the thought of it made her feel like throwing up. How could she keep living with all this pain and suffering and regret and hopelessness and self loathing. 

She was meant to get by with a voice in her head. A voice that screamed and pleaded for attention, ‘THEY MIGHT BE OUT THERE WAITING FOR YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!’. 

The Prince had made the worst decision of his life and brought her out of her thoughts by kicking the side of her leg.

“What?” She snapped. 

He threw her an alarming look, like he was trying to warn her of something, “There’s someone that’s been staring at us for a while now.” His voice was weirdly off sounding. 

His eyes flickered behind her. Y/N tried looking as discreetly as possible.

Red. All she could see was red. 

A tall woman with jet black hair shaved all the way down to a buzz cut. Her eyes weren’t gold like Zuko’s and many other people from the Fire Nation. They were a deep, deep red, so red that Y/N felt like her eyes were on fire. Like her guts were being ripped out. Red jewelry, red clothes, red shoes. Y/N had never hated the color more in her entire life. 

The woman was just standing in the middle of the huge crowd peering, no,  _ burning _ into the alleyway that the two were in. Her face was emotionless and never looked like it was going to move, not even a twitch in the eye. And for the few seconds they had both made eye contact Y/N had felt nothing but fear. 

Fear that she’d felt months ago. Not the kind she was familiar with. It was different.

Worse. 

When Y/N had finally torn her eyes away from her she realized she could hold her breath for longer than she thought. Y/N also realized that her body liked to think on it’s own. She’d grabbed the Prince’s arm harshly as they both ran to the opposite opening of the alleyway. 

She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when her skin had finally stopped burning, when her stomach had stopped feeling like someone had been chewing at her inside out, or when she could no longer feel a pair of scorching eyes on her, but it took too long. And maybe it was because Y/N was paranoid, but every step she took felt like a step further away from death. 

|

|

Falling onto damp dirt had never felt so amazing. The snow surrounding her was half melted and all sludgy, forming small muddy puddles around her. Y/N didn’t mind the fact that she was getting her clothes all dirty and wet, she just wanted to relish in the semi warmth of the floor. She really wished the sun was out, not that it would completely get rid of the cold air that surrounded them.

Another blaze of fire ripped through the air and this time it was right next to her. Y/N winced and shot the Prince an alarmed look. 

He only shrugged in response and then punched the air toward the ground again, when all the ice melted into the ground he seemed satisfied and layed down on his back. Y/N debated bending cuffs on him again but then decided against it. It wasn’t as cold here compared to back home, he’d have enough power to melt them. 

Y/N sighed and held herself up with her elbows, she threw her head back and looked at the stars knowing that’s what she’d be staring at until the sun came up.

She muttered a ‘shit’ under her breath when she’d already felt like her eyes were closing.

“Will you quit that?” Zuko grumbles.

Y/N shoots him a glare. She’d honestly forgotten he was next to her. He somehow turned into the least of her problems in the matter of hours. Her thoughts were so clear before, now it all felt like meaningless white noise. Nothing in her body felt like it was working right. 

“What?” Y/N drawls. She’s aware she probably sounds like a whiny baby at the moment but the command had bothered her for some reason. Why did he have to look so under control all the time? 

“You’ve been sighing and groaning ever since we got here. You complaining 24/7 doesn’t mix well with my exhaustion.”

Y/N feigned concern and brought her hand up to her head like they would in plays. She dramatically gasped just to add fuel to the fire. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation but she really felt like making fun of him.

“My deepest apologies, Prince. I’ll try to keep the noise to a minimum from now on.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and gruffed. Well that obviously hit some kind of nerve, Y/N found herself proud. When he opened his mouth she quirked an eyebrow, sort of daring him to come up with something to say. When he closed it and looked away she knew she had won.

Then there's silence for a little while. It’s the type where you know someone wants to say something but can’t really find the right timing or the right phrasing for it. An accidental change of tone and it might sound rude or brash, or maybe just plain stupid. But it’s not the awkward ‘i want to say something so badly’ kind of silence because you always expect the other person to not feel the weird energy in the air and feel the ghost of unspoken words silently leave your lips when you think they’re not paying attention at all. 

And that’s the only difference. 

Y/N shifted her weight and kept looking up. One of her friends once said that the stars gave you courage. 

“I’m still going to go through with this, you know.” 

Y/N didn’t know why she felt the need to say it to his face(well mostly up to the dark sky). Maybe it was because it had only recently dawned on her that he was actually there when she was talking with Tiho. When Tiho had told her that the situation was lose-lose. That Y/N could die. 

Zuko scoffed like she’d just said the dumbest thing in the world. And she guessed that he wasn’t so wrong to think that. 

“You must have a deathwish.” When Y/N peeks over at him she notices his eyes were closed. 

“I guess so.” Stars are so small from down here.

Silence again. 

“Why?” He asked. She still can’t place why he had.

Y/N nearly recoiled at the question. Such a simple one. 

“Because I’d rather die than not try at all.”

When she’d said it she was looking straight up at the stars. Y/N didn’t feel an ounce of courage. 


	5. CH.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> woah our noses just bumped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took a while lmao my bad  
> hope yall think it's ok :)

Zuko woke up to the sound of water and morning sun on his skin. He relished in the fact that he hadn’t woken up before dawn and melted in this rare wave of calm he’d gotten. It was still rather early though, Zuko could tell by the way the air smelled. Something like morning dew, which was odd since he’d fallen asleep with cold set deep in his lungs. 

Still not knowing where the water was coming from, Zuko sat up from his position.

Y/N was already up, she always was, the bags under her eyes proving his point. Not that Zuko really cared. He just couldn’t help but notice that she looked half-dead, he honestly couldn’t figure out how she was even standing at this point. It reminded him of how some nights he just wouldn’t sleep while hunting down the Avatar. Restless nights of thinking back on failures and fighting with himself. 

She was moving fluidly, her arms like ribbons. Her eyes were closed and the water she was bending moved around her like a snake. It reminded him of how Katara bended but it was also completely different, for one Zuko noticed Y/N moved more leisurely and her flow looked less professional. Y/N looked like she was kind of making things up as she went. Zuko kept observing, this was the first time he’d seen her bend since she had fought the leopard sea lion at the lake, or when she’d put cuffs back on him. She never seemed to want to use it when they would fight each other, Y/N always seemed to like using her bare hands. Which Zuko just couldn’t understand, it would set her back quite a bit, she’d only ever win by catching him off guard. 

Maybe he was just thinking this because the multiple losses had slashed his pride down more than he would like to admit. 

She’d always, always win. Even when she was clearly being overpowered she never backed down enough for him to beat her and escape. 

Zuko had been observing her for a while before they had arrived at the cabin. He knew nothing about his enemy and it made him anxious. 

Yet, all of the information he’d gathered was thrown out the window when the real thing came. 

From what he had observed, Zuko had come to the conclusion that she would depend on her bending, which he was clearly wrong about. She hadn’t used her bending until the very end to put his restraints back on. He’d guessed she would push to be on offense but he’d been wrong about that too, Y/N would deliberately stay on defense, waiting until the very last second. She’d even let him go as far as to get her defenseless. She was sneaky, like a fish you just aren’t able to get a good hold on. And then when she’d headbutted him--it took him a while to come to terms with the fact that he hadn’t seen that coming. 

Part of him thought she hadn’t either, he could tell by the small bruise on her forehead that it had set her back. Never in his life did Zuko think he’d get headbutted in a fight. 

The sound of water splashing onto the ground and a slew of curse words brought Zuko out of his thoughts. 

“I almost had that . . .” She mumbled while bending the water out of the ground and back into her water skin. 

Zuko coughed and finally caught her eye. 

“Oh, morning,” She said.

It was weird, the way she’d always say that. Even when Y/N would force him awake, in a very ill mannered way Zuko might add, she never did not say good morning. Wasn’t exactly kidnapper material.

Zuko only nodded and got himself up from his spot, it had snowed overnight, the once dirt ground he’d made was now lightly littered with snow. Zuko brushed himself off while she picked up her things. Her left arm was shaky.

“We’re leaving already,” He said nearly dazed, he had just woken up after all. You would think he was used to being on the move 24/7 by now. It was more than he was just better at hiding his discomfort.

Y/N nodded as she picked up the last of her things. Zuko wondered why she had waited to leave instead of waking him up immediately like she always did. He didn’t ask. 

They walked into the less clear part of the woods and Zuko was thrown off for a second. Usually, she would tell him where she was bringing him. Seems like she wasn’t up for conversation, well by conversation Zuko really meant threats or a set of directions and the occasional weird laugh they’d share. Which Zuko would try and fail to hold on to. He hoped that maybe she’d begin to feel sympathetic or something, change her mind. But as soon as silence settled back he swore he could hear her shutting herself off again. 

Y/N kept walking and he only followed, which he found dumb of himself. He could get away right now, right this second. He didn’t have restraints and her back was turned, for once she wasn’t walking beside him. Was she this confident, so much so that she didn’t feel the need to be watching him? Or was this a bluff? Zuko honestly couldn’t tell, so he only took what he thought would be the safest route. Just keep following, observe, learning more about your enemy by watching the back of their head always helps. Right? 

Zuko felt at least half right about his hypothesis. If he was really planning on getting the upper hand on her he needed more time to watch her. She seemed more skilled than she let off. 

Maybe not even skilled, just unpredictable. 

They’re walking on a trail now, into a lighter part of the forest. The sun peeked through the trees and their shadows looked like they were dancing. Zuko realized it was warmer here than the town or the igloo. Much warmer, like late fall. The snow wasn’t as dense and hard to get through and the trees were birch, the pattern on the bark looked like eyes. They looked like they were watching him.

Y/N’s feet dragged in the dirt more than usual and her shoulders looked tense. She looked like she was a weak leaf on the branch of a tree during the fall. 

The thought to attack and escape hit him again. 

Zuko would only have to strike her once from the look of it, knock her out cold and then leave. Hell, this was more than perfect. Zuko would probably be able to escape without even a scratch on him. Y/N clearly wasn’t in any shape to fight, it would be a guaranteed win. There would be no room for her to pull anything he wouldn’t see coming.

So then why couldn’t he?

For some reason, part of him couldn’t shake the image of her being left alone here. Tired and defenseless. So Zuko found himself doing nothing. Why was this so hard? They were enemies as far as he could tell.

He dragged his hand along the bark beside him while he thought. If he wasn’t able to attack at the moment the least he could do was leave behind more clues for Sokka and the others. He made it so that his hand was a little bit warmer than usual, not so much so that you’d be able to see, but enough for marks to be left on the bark. He’d been doing this whenever he had the chance, so basically whenever his cuffs happened to be off. He left marks on trees and did anything else he thought would be able to help. Zuko tried his best to leave a clear enough trail for them to be able to find him, but discreet enough for her to not notice.

Y/N suddenly stopped walking, making Zuko bump into her back. 

“What is it?” He asked.

She looked straight up and creased her eyebrows. “Something feels off.”

Zuko looked at her and then looked up as well, remembering how she practically predicted what was going to happen at the lake. He learned to just trust her instincts and shut up after that. 

“You think someone’s following us?” He whispered. 

She stopped looking up and then looked at him suspiciously. 

“I’m not sure, Prince. You tell me,” She said accusingly. 

Zuko sputtered but wasn’t able to answer before she spoke again. “You think I wouldn’t notice you leaving a trail of clues for your buddy?”

Shit. To be honest, the whole thing was a huge longshot. Zuko knew she would figure something out sooner than later, he couldn’t deny that she was too smart not to notice. But this soon? How long had she been delivering people to General Lee for her to become this cautious?

He decided to play dumb.

“What buddy?” 

A little too far.

Y/N swiftly reached out to grab his hand, not giving him enough time for his hand to go cold again. She brought it up in front of his own face. 

“This isn’t just to keep warm, is it?”

She threw it down with so much force that he was beginning to doubt that she was tired at all. Her hand was red, she placed it behind her back. He watched as her eyes wandered to the trees he’d touched and closed her eyes. Zuko couldn’t place why, but she looked nearly disappointed. Almost like she didn’t want it to be true. It was very discreet, but he’d caught at least half of it before it went away.

“You’re putting me in danger,” She gruffed. Her face had gone back to anger and speculation. Her guard was up, still trying to figure out if someone was following them. 

The statement had angered him. 

“I’m putting  _ you _ in danger?!” She flinched at his raised voice, he didn’t really care enough to stop. “I’ve been in danger since you kidnapped me!” 

She had no right to get mad at him. None at all. Zuko was beginning to regret not attacking her and escaping. 

When he saw her face change that was when he realized he’d voiced his regret outloud. 

“What?” She asked in disbelief. 

“I said--”

“No not you, idiot.” She quickly dismissed him, which only angered him more. She wasn’t even paying attention. Her head was angled up, not even facing him.

His face contorted and he balled up his hands into fists. He could take her on right now. She wasn’t even taking this seriously. 

He put up his hands and got into a fighting position. 

“Fight me,” He blurted out.

She finally looks at him with this weird half pissed half panicked expression.

“Seriously? Right now, you want to do this right now?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding?”

He took a step forward to land the first hit, preparing fire to swing at her. 

But then it was like time had been put into slow motion. He watched Y/N’s expression morph into pure panic and her stance go slack for a second. Her eyes weren’t watching him anymore, but something behind him. Zuko saw her mouth opening but it was too late for any kind of warning. He felt a great force make contact with the back of his neck and let himself fall forward. 

The hit made it feel like his brain was a small ball continuously hitting the walls surrounding it, like a ping pong. His vision went all fuzzy and his muscles had gone completely slack. 

The descent felt so painfully long, his consciousness slowly leaving him. He could do nothing as he saw the figure somehow make it to Y/N in lightning speed and try to take her out as well. She was able to put up more of a fight than Zuko had. He heard water being whipped in different directions, but then the small hope that the person was being beat left him when he’d heard Y/N cry out in pain and fall to the ground. 

He willed his eyes to stay as open as they could, the crunch of snow under someone’s feet told him to ‘keep alert’! Because the noise was getting further away from Y/N and closer to him. They stopped right in front of him and for some reason Zuko had held his breath. 

The last thing he’d seen were a pair of shoes. 

  
  


|

|

So things are shitty. Like really, really, shitty. So shitty that Zuko might as well take a crap on this situation himself, you know, to add a little bit of flavor. Should we review? 

Let’s marinate in this shittines. 

The one time he lets his guard down and wants to have fun with a friend he gets drugged by  _ another _ person him and his stupid nation has wronged. Then he gets kidnapped by said person, watched her fight an eel and almost die, and then watched as her home got burned down by people wearing the same colors as him. 

And now!? Well, they were both stuck in some rando’s steel cage on the back of a carriage. The kind with only two small barred windows on either side. Zuko began to feel his legs cramp up, they were all tangled up with Y/N’s, who was sat in front of him, still unconscious. Her head was drooped down and every time the thing would hit a bump on the road it would bob before settling down again. Her injured arm was limp, her bandages were much too worn now, he was a little bit worried the person who took them had broken it. It would have explained what he’d heard before he’d passed out. 

The plus side to this was that there was none. An awful amount of time had passed, enough for it to be dark out now. This obviously alarmed Zuko since the last time he’d been awake it was around noon. He must have been out for hours. 

Zuko looked over at Y/N and kicked the side of her leg, he’d thought about doing it earlier but decided against it. He’d thought it wouldn’t have taken her so long to wake up, but it had been an hour of him alone already, and he was smart enough to know he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this situation by himself. When she didn’t react Zuko did it a second time, only this time with a little bit more force. Y/N flinched, muttering something under breath, was she drooling? He kicked again.

She jolted awake, her first expression being pain, it looked like her arm really was broken. 

“What the hell . . .” She struggled with the cuffs on her hands. It was no use, Zuko had already tried that as soon as he’d woken up as well. They were the kind that covered the entirety of your hands, leaving you little to no room to bend. When Y/N finally realized it was in fact a waste of time she looked towards him, not even taking the time to look at her surroundings. It looked like she was used to this.

“How long have we been in here?” She asked. 

“Hours,” He replied. As he did Y/N craned her neck and looked out the barred window. She sighed and looked down. Zuko couldn’t read her face. 

“Did you see who took us?”

Zuko scoffed, “I was attacked from behind. Unless I had eyes on the back of my head, so  _ no.  _ I didn’t see them.”

Y/N rolled her eyes, clearly not amused by Zuko’s tone of voice. 

“You fought them head on. You’re telling you didn’t get a single good look?” He asked.

“I think my arm’s broken,” She deflected. So she had seen them? Why didn’t Y/N want to tell him what they looked like?

“What did they look like?”

“I don’t know! Homie looked like a fucking ninja, like, wham bam and then my arm is _broken._ ” Y/N brought up her limp arm for emphasis. “And now we’re stuck here.”

She threw her head back onto the metal and muttered something under her breath. She looked defeated. 

“This sucks.” Her voice cracked. For a second he thinks she might start crying again and doesn’t know what to do, he wasn’t the best at comforting people and with both of them stuck in this cramped space there was no way for him to avoid it somehow. The best he could muster the last time was a small ‘sorry’, which he couldn’t stop seeing as pathetic because a sorry wasn’t going to help or fix anything or her burning home. A sorry, last time he’d checked, wasn’t going to break the both of them out of a cell.

Instead, he asked, “What do we do?” Because clearly there was no way they’d be able to escape. With Y/N’s broken arm, their steel cuffs, and knowing nothing of their shared enemy all odds were against them. 

Y/N raised her head to look at him, he can’t see her expression clearly but hears her breathing, it’s labored, like she was in pain. He could tell she was trying to control it to seem more composed. It wasn’t working very well.

Zuko realized that this question doesn’t help either, he can imagine the look Y/N is sending his way. The way her lips are frowning and her brows are furrowed, the tiredness in her eyes, looking at him like he’d just spouted out one of the lamest jokes in the world. The sort of look he’d throw his uncle when he’d do exactly that. 

“I don’t know.” She said. “Got any bright ideas, Prince?”

Zuko ignored her jab at his status and thought for a second. 

“Talk?” He suggested. 

Once again Zuko can’t quite read her expression because of the darkness, but he can picture her agape mouth and weirded out expression almostly perfectly. She’d already given him the same one in the few days they’ve been together. 

“You want to make conversation?”

“I guess so.”

He heard her shrug, at least that was what he’d guessed when he’d heard clothes rise and fall and the rattle of cuffs rise and hit the metal floor. “Fine then. What do you want to talk about?”

“Why me?” He’d asked abruptly. 

Honestly, he’d been wondering about it for a while. Some ideas had crossed his mind but never really made complete sense. 

His first thought was that his father might have been looking to bring him back home and had sent someone out, but that was quickly thrown aside since he knew his father had never done that before. It would have been completely out of character, he’d made it clear time and time again that after his banishment he’d want nothing to do with him. And after siding with the Avatar, Zuko knew there was no chance. Then he had reason to believe his freak of a sister had done this but he knew that she wouldn’t hire someone of such low status, and with unpolished skills at that. The most solid hypothesis he had was that he’d angered her somehow and that it was a win-win for her if she could get rid of the Prince of the Fire nation and get personal gain from the General at the same time, which wasn’t exactly out of the ball park. 

Nonetheless. Zuko, for the past few days, had wondered why she had chosen him out of anyone else to hand over to General Lee.

When he had snuck a peek at a few letters that they had both exchanged(and at the very colorful vocabulary in Y/N’s botched first drafts of letters)the General had never once explicitly said to bring  _ him _ for the exchange they were making. Most of the time it was just ‘the convict’ or ‘someone of high status that equivalates to what you desire’ and ‘a fire nation traitor that will hand me high regard for turning them in’. The General seemed to be very interested in gaining a promotion for taking credit for work he’d never done himself. Zuko had no idea how Y/N had gone through all of those letters without ripping a single one up. Regardless, he’d proven his point, he’d never been mentioned specifically once. The closest they had gotten to him was ‘someone of high status’. But why would Y/N go straight for royalty? Surely there were others that were more accessible. Maybe she just believed in ‘go big or go home’? 

“What do you mean?” 

“Out of all people, why’d you choose me?” Zuko doesn’t realize how intimate the question sounds until it leaves his mouth. 

“No specific reason. You’re just. . . valuable?” She tried answering.

“Valuable?”

“You’re special.” 

Zuko felt a smirk sneak onto his face, it was too bad she couldn’t see it. For once he had the upper hand, in a random conversation sparked out of pure reluctance maybe, but it was still the upper hand. 

“You think I’m special?”

“No!” She rebutted all too quickly. “Convenience. You were purely convenient. You just happened to be in the village I was in at the same time.”

“I have a very hard time believing that since you had so many posters of me around.”

“That’s!” She never finished her sentence, deciding on completely giving up on the topic. “Let’s just talk about something else, we’ll take turns going back and forth.”

“Like twenty questions?” He asked. 

“Yeah, now lemme think.”

There wasn’t much to talk about frankly, and she seemed, so he didn’t expect anything of any value to be asked or brought up. 

“Do you think this will work?” She asked meekly. 

Well that was a little unexpected. 

His honest answer was no, this was most definitely not going to work. Y/N would most likely get double-crossed in the end and have gone through all of this work for absolutely no reason. Zuko had met General Lee once when he was a little younger. The man was plain ugly, inside and out. 

He wants to lie to her, thinking maybe this was a better way to console her than anything else. 

“Don’t lie to me,” She added. 

“. . . No.”

Y/N sighed and then didn’t make any effort to continue the conversation. Zuko realized that this probably meant she expected him to take his turn. 

“Don’t tell me you're still going to do it?” He asked in skepticism.

“What else am I supposed to do?” She exclaimed. “It’s not like I have much of a choice. I’d rather die trying than do nothing at all.”

“It’s stupid and reckless.” He recalled her saying something along the same lines last night before he’d fallen asleep. He wondered if she had some sort of death wish or something. It was such a reckless way of thinking. 

“It’s not.” She began but Zuko didn’t let her finish. Something about this reminded him of someone, it angered him. 

“Whatever you’re trading me for can’t be worth your life.”

“They are.”

“They?” He asked. Zuko realized that he never really knew what Y/N was going to gain from doing a favor for that scumbag. Was it money, protection, maybe she just wanted someone with power to owe her, maybe she owed him? No, it was a them. People. 

“He took away everyone I knew . . .”

Zuko felt something suddenly crash into the air. Guilt. A huge wave of pure guilt hit him. He wished there was more than he could do than apologize. He felt like the face of it all, well not right this second, but his father was. His father was the face of all this genocide and destruction. Zuko was born into inheriting it, not only that but continuing it too. He was reminded of how he’d already participated in it as well.

“It was two days before I’d met you for the first time, when I lost them I mean. They practically adopted me.” She let out a bitter laugh. “None of them were benders so I was the only one that could really protect them from the Fire Nation besides retired soldiers that couldn’t actually fight in the front lines anymore and kids that sort of knew how to fight. ”

“It’s like. . . I need to do this to redeem myself because they  _ needed _ me and I wasn’t there. I failed. If I don’t do this I don’t think I’d ever be able to face them again.” 

He doesn’t know what to do, it’s so dark. He can’t see her face and Zuko was somewhat glad because he was afraid of feeling even worse, which was selfish of him he knew, but he didn’t want to imagine the pained expression on her face. 

“I--I know how you feel.”

She let out a breathy laugh, the sort where you don’t smile. Just sort of letting air out of your mouth and nose. “Sure you do.”

And he did. He was banished from his own home, by his FATHER, someone who was meant to love him. And for the longest time, he’d convinced himself that he needed to do this one thing to make up for years of love that was never given to him and was never meant to be in the first place. 

Redemption.

So no, he guessed he didn’t completely understand her situation, but in a way, some parts seemed too similar for him to ignore. 

Zuko didn’t realize neither of them had said anything in a while, having left things on a sort of uncomfortable note. 

“It’s--um. It’s your turn,” She mentioned. 

Y/N seemed to ignore they’d completely discarded the rules of the game during the small conversation. 

“How many people have you captured and turned in besides me?” He asked, trying to change the subject but at the same time not completely backtracking. He could have asked something stupid, like, what’s your favorite food? But that seemed too childish, and to be honest he was too curious.

Y/N seemed to think for a while, he bet she would be counting on her fingers. If her hands weren’t cuffed of course. 

“Maybe seven? Shit’s harder than you think,” She answered. 

“Then how come you still need me?” 

“General Lee’s annoyingly picky.”

Zuko nodded, he wouldn’t put it past him. The way he remembered the General wasn’t all that nice, he looked stuck up and always paranoid. Yet somehow always so arrogant about himself. 

“By the way, I’ve been wondering. Are you still hunting down the Avatar? Before I captured you I heard they were there, and you happened to be too.” Y/N questioned. It sounded genuine, not like when Azula would ask him in a taunting manner. 

“No... Uh. I’m helping him learn fire bending now.”

“Oh!”

“Oh?”

“Well, I sorta feel bad.” She explained. “I thought you were this bad person, you know like some overlord, which I still sort of do, but so far you seem. . . tolerable. It makes things harder, makes me sort of hate you more too.”

“Hate me more?”

Y/N sighed and she sounded defeated. “It’s not like I enjoy doing stuff like this, but the fact that the people I turned in were inherently bad made things better. I didn’t feel as shitty or guilty. But with you?” She paused. “You’re. . .”

“Special?” He finished for her. 

Zuko felt a swift kick to his shin seconds after. 

“Don’t push it,” She warned. 

“Seriously though, you’re making things really hard for me here.”

“Those were my intentions.”

“But was it  _ necessary _ to do it psychologically?” He could hear the frown on her face. “It would have honestly been better if you’d just beaten the shit out of me or something.” She muttered under her breath

“I tried that and that didn’t work.” He wasn’t wrong, recalling when she’d headbutted him during their fight. It was odd, he was sure he was going to win the fight, the attack was. . . unique.

“You pack quite a punch.”

“Awww that’s so sweet, thank you,” She mocked kindness. 

Then there's silence and they both seem to completely forget about the game of 20 questions they were playing, it didn’t exactly matter though, it wasn’t like they were following the rules. Zuko felt the tap-tap and tapping of Y/N’s foot against his, not exactly kicking but like they were both playing footsies together. Zuko can’t remember doing something as childish as this in a long time. He can sort of see a little better now, looking around him and realizing it wasn’t as dark as before. The first thing he thought about doing was looking at her. Wondering if he could read her mood from just the way her brows were rested and the way her mouth was angled. 

Her hair was in front of her face and Zuko noticed blood dripping down her arm, he didn’t remember that being there. Her face held no apparent expression, she didn’t look happy or sad, more deflated than anything else. There was a rhythm in the way she was hitting his foot with her own. Tap tap tap. . . tap tap. . . tap tap tap. And then over and over again. She seemed to suddenly be thinking of something completely devoid of what they were speaking of before. There was no way to figure her out this time. Her walls had somehow gotten thicker and taller than before, his chance of somewhat making nice with her and being let go completely stepped and spat on. She looked so utterly guarded. This was an example of what he’d mentioned before. 

Zuko was late to acknowledge the carriage had stopped, no longer feeling the bump and unevenness of the road they were on. 

“Hey.” Zuko tapped her foot, breaking the rhythm of hers. “We’re not moving anymore.”

Y/N seemed to finally come back from whatever world she had shut herself in before. 

“Really?” She asked. Zuko nodded, not really sure if she was able to see him but didn’t bother saying anything just in case. 

“We should look out the window,” Y/N suggested. 

Zuko was the first to get up, which was deemed harder than he thought it to be. His legs were numb and felt like static after sitting on the hard metal for so long. Y/N had already fallen and slipped trying to get up, the space was tight and she had no hands to support herself so Zuko only watched her keep falling onto her ass. He held back a smile after her third attempt. 

“Do you need help?”

“Nope.” She finally brought herself up. “Fuck, my legs feel like jelly.”

Y/N fell forwards and bumped into his chest. They both quickly backed up as much as they could, both their backs against their side of the opposite walls. 

Before either of them could apologize for said thing or let out an awkward laugh there was yelling. Big gruff yelling that came from the bottom of someone’s stomach. Both of them, forgetting the small interaction that had occurred seconds ago, rushed to the small barred window. It was hard to see anything, Y/N and Zuko were both on their tippy-toes and trying to get a decent look. 

“See anything?” She asked. 

“Not with your big head in the way,” He retorted. 

She threw him a shocked expression and scooted over since he was about an inch or so taller than her. At one point she’d completely moved over, not that there was much place to move, her back was against the wall and their legs were still sort of touching. Zuko looked out the barred window for her, trying to get the best look at what was happening as he could. There wasn’t much snow where they were, a dirt path, probably what the carriage had been following this whole time, he wondered where though. He couldn't see much except for the sliver of someone’s arm now and then. They were yelling at someone. 

“YOU CAN’T . . .” The argument was muffled but Zuko singled two different voices. It was a bit higher-pitched than the other. A man and a woman possibly? If so, which one had taken the two of them? Zuko pressed his ear onto the metal, hoping to hear things more clearly.

“. . . so yes, technically I can. Now, I’m getting really tired of talking to trash like you. Give it up and let me past already. It’s going to happen either way.”

The other voice sputtered and fumbled at what Zuko believed to be the woman’s voice. Finally, he said. 

“Who do you think you are? Just because you know--”

Suddenly there's a loud crunch. Scaringly accurate to the one he’d heard before he’d fallen unconscious when Y/N was attempting to fight whoever was ambushing them. Had they?

The person yelped out in pain, then thud, fallen onto the floor, letting out a coughing fit. 

“Honestly. . . people recruit anyone these days,” They said. 

The person on the ground said nothing, Zuko honestly wasn’t sure if he was breathing anymore, he heard no more coughs, no more yelps of pain. What had they done? 

Then footsteps, away from the carriage though. He guessed that they believed both of them still unconscious, or confident enough that neither of them were able to escape for both of them to be left behind unsupervised. This person was someone that had immense self-confidence and for good reason. Zuko was hoping they wouldn’t bother to check on the both of them to see if they had awoken. As much as he sympathized with Y/N’s broken arm, it didn’t mean he wanted one as well. 

“I heard someone scream, what was that?” Y/N whispered. Zuko hadn’t noticed it, but she had progressively gotten closer to him. Her hushed question being asked directly by his ear. He jumped a little when he turned his head to face her. Their noses bumped.

“Did you get a good look? Dude, what’s going on?” She urged. 

Zuko stayed silent for a little. With the small idea that the person who captured them had just killed some guard out of annoyance and Y/N’s face is once again stupidly close to his, his mind feels like it's reeling. 

“I think they just killed a dude,” He choked out. How stupid, you’d think at one point he’d stop having voice cracks.

“What! Who?”

Zuko quickly hushed her. 

“The person who knocked us out and broke your arm. . . I think they just killed a soldier. But then they walked away? Doesn’t matter, I think they think we’re still unconscious so we better stay quiet. They’ll be back soon no doubt.”

Y/N creased her eyebrows and sort made this ‘o’ shape with her mouth. She looked adorably confused. Which is weird, not the way he’d described her facial expression, well yes also that, but he’s going to ignore it for now. 

“What is it?” He questioned. 

“I’m trying to figure out who I’ve fucked over in the past few months.”

Zuko almost laughed. 

“Is it a long list?”

“No, which is why I’m so confused. I mean, I’m not some war criminal or anything. Maybe they’re after you?”

Zuko shook his head. “I didn’t recognize they’re voice.”

Y/N groaned and took a half a step back, Zuko finally let out a breath of relief. 

“So we might die,” She said matter of factly like it was the most basic thing in the world. 

“That’s been a possibility for me this entire time,” Zuko said snarkily. 

“Hey! I never planned on killing you.”

“You punched me in the face.”

“In my defense, you were being a dick.”

Zuko huffed and didn’t say anything else. Not because he felt defeated in the argument they were having but because he heard the footsteps coming back. 

He looked over to Y/N in warning and she quickly caught on and said nothing else. They both held their breaths. But something sounded wrong. It sounded like more than one person was coming their way. 

Then the door opened. 

Zuko was the first one to be grabbed. He was flung out of the small container and hastily thrown onto the dirt ground. Y/N came soon after, she was grabbed by her collar and thrown to the side of him. She had screamed out in pain, having landed on top of her broken arm, but Zuko could barely hear it. He could only see the clearly limp soldier a few feet away from him. His head was facing the wrong way, or was it his body? 

He felt like throwing up trying to figure it out, attempting to tear his eyes away. He didn’t have to do much himself, as he was yanked by his hair all of a sudden, being forced to look at an unfamiliar face instead.

“What’s so special about these two?” The soldier asked in a gruff manner. Wow, his breath stank. 

“Hey! Hands off of that one, it’s the Prince you dunce,” The women warned. 

The man quickly let him go, letting Zuko face plant into the dirt all over again. 

He attempted to track who’s voice it was, guessing this was who had taken them. 

She was tall and had buzzed hair and deep red eyes. He recognized her. The woman from the town earlier today. Well, maybe yesterday. Zuko had no idea what time it was.

Besides her, there was the soldier who had grabbed him and two others. Not counting the one on the floor. Zuko willed himself to look at him again. 

She vaguely gestured towards Y/N’s figure. “That one doesn’t matter, though. Do as you please. Just don’t kill her.”

Zuko wished he hadn’t caught the look of fear in Y/N’s eyes. 

The third soldier crouched down to Y/N’s level and examined her face. Poking it a bit like she was some sort of insect on the floor, like when you decided if you want to crush a rolly polly or not. 

“This the one the General’s so afraid of?” He grabbed her face roughly and made her look at him. 

“Watch your mouth. He’s only being cautious. It’s  _ admirable _ ,” The women spoke.

Kiss ass.

The second man scoffed. “Admirable? Seems like he’s scared of a little girl he handed too much power to.”

While they spoke Y/N bite the man holding her face. 

“Mother fucker!” 

She let out a breathy laugh and said nothing else. The others burst out laughing as he grew embarrassed. Getting up in a rush and taking a step back the man kicked Y/N’s side with great force. She groaned and rolled onto her still intact arm. 

“Asshole,” She coughed out. He sneered at her comment and got ready for another swift kick before the woman spoke up again. It looked like she was the one in charge, these guys seemed to have their heads too far up their asses to be more than foot soldiers. 

“That’s enough! We don’t have time for this, we need to get both of them to the General by tomorrow night.”

One of the guards, the one that had grabbed Zuko, we’ll call him Grabby, looked down at him and arched his brow. 

“Can’t we just leave this one? He was banished and betrayed the whole nation! Don’t see how he’s worth our time.” He looked down at Zuko with disdain. 

“Hey!” Zuko yelled out in protest. 

The woman pressed her shoe onto his back, suddenly pushing all the air out of him. 

“Shut up.” She let out an exasperated sigh and continued. “General’s orders.”

They all let out a string of robotic ‘yes ma'am!’ or ‘roger that!’s and saluted. 

Zuko was picked up the ground roughly and brought face to face with Grabby, Zuko could tell under all that armor he was a real nasty guy, it wasn’t just his breath this time. He grimaced at their proximity. 

The man snarled. “What’re you giving me that face for?”

“You. . . have an eye booger,” Zuko croaked out. 

His colleagues snickered as they picked up Y/N from off of the ground. Zuko panicked for a second, she was completely limp now. He’d relaxed when he’d seen her chest rise and fall, he wondered when she’d passed out. 

“Why you!” 

Zuko winced, expecting to get hit somehow. 

“Remember what I told you,” The woman warned him before he could say anything. The man almost seemed to deflate out of fear, Zuko nearly laughed at how quick he was to give up. 

She let out another exasperated sigh and headed towards the front of the carriage. She waved to them half haphazardly with her back still turned. 

“They’re your problem for now.”

“Yeah, yeah.” 

The man on the ground was never mentioned, only left there like an afterthought. Zuko thinks he caught one of the guards sneaking a second look at the figure with what he hoped was at least pity remorse. But they only continued walking in a direction Zuko couldn’t recognize. 

The world looked upside down. He mistakes a cloud for Appa and only hopes his friends will find him soon.


End file.
